Natural gas retail market to be open to competition from April

SINGAPORE intends to open up the natural gas retail market outside Jurong Island, Jurong and Tuas industrial areas (JIT) - currently supplied by City Gas, the monopoly town gas retailer here - to competition, from April.

Regulator Energy Market Authority (EMA) launched a consultation paper on this yesterday, with a policy review aimed at making the natural gas retail market outside the JIT areas a "free for all", from April 1.

"This will allow consumers who are connected to the natural gas distribution network to have more options in choosing their gas retailers," said EMA, adding that no major modifications to the existing information technology (IT) systems and business processes are needed to implement this change.