Company that has purchased certain quantities of natural gas. The entity that enters into a contract with the pipeline licensee for the transmission of the gas. The shipper has the responsibility to ensure that the quantity of gas nominated is the quantity of gas delivered. Shippers buy gas from producers, sell to suppliers and employ PGT’s to transport it to consumers. Consumers or marketers of the natural gas distribution licenses in Israel are also known as shippers. In Israel and in many other countries, the shipper/marketer משווק is the entity that is responsible to carry out all the commercial and technical deals and issues the deal vis-à-vis all the other entities – with the gas suppliers (for the purchase of the gas), with the transmission system’s licensee (to sign the transportation agreement and to pay the transmission tariff) and with the distribution network licensee (to book the link up and pay the distribution tariff). An end consumer that wishes to purchase gas and transmission and distribution services for himself will also be considered a shipper/marketer; namely a consumer can be his own shipper. A natural gas producer can also be a shipper in the distribution network. In principle the משווק is a shipper in so far as his obligations regarding the Transportation Agreement with INGL and with the distribution licensees are concerned, whilst vis-à-vis the consumers he is a marketer, since he is the entity that purchases the gas from the gas supplier and markets/sells it to those consumers that cannot operate alone vis-à-vis the supplier. In Israel, there is no business relationship between the distribution license holder and the natural gas supplier. The distribution network licensee can only know what is happening in his region whilst the marketer/shipper can operate in all the regions. It is the marketer/shipper and not the distribution licensee that is responsible to supply the gas to consumers. It is the shipper’s responsibility to ensure that the amount of gas that was nominated is the actual amount of gas supplied. A gas supplier may act as shipper/marketer in the distribution network. A consumer of the distribution network can be his own shipper/marketer.

In order to obtain the services from the transmission and distribution licensees it is incumbent upon the shipper to (1) to obtain a shipper’s/marketer’s license; (2) to sign the transportation agreement with the transmission licensee and to pay the actual flow tariff relevant to shippers; (3) to sign an agreement with the distribution network licensee and to pay him his distribution tariff; (4) to order the link up from the distribution licensee based on the tariff set in the tender. The shipper will be responsible to levy the payments from his consumers based on the meter reading that the distribution licensee set up for them. One shipper/marketer can provide his services in all the distribution areas and thus he and not the distribution licensee will be party to the GSA agreement and the transportation agreement. The consumer will only pay for the amount of gas that is registered on his meter. In the case of lack of coordination between the meter of the shipper at the entry point of the distribution network and between the total results of all the reading of the meters at the consumers’ entry points in that region, it is up to the shipper/marketer to make up the shortfall or enjoy the overflow relative to the consumption of his consumers. A GSPA agreement between a gas producer and a shipper/marketer/consumer deals with the commercial issues such as price, consumption profile, sanctions in case of non supply, etc. These agreements are made between a willing buyer and a willing seller and the contract details are not dictated or supervised by the regulator. The shipper/marketer has obligations for any damages that his gas may cause to the facilities of the distribution licensee or for the non supply of his services to consumers. The shipper takes upon himself responsibility for all the consumers’ setting of accounts vis-à-vis all the other players in the market. In return, the consumer pays for the price of the gas (which includes the shipper’s/marketer’s fee; neither the gas price nor this fee is supervised by the regulator), plus the regulated tariffs for the transmission, distribution and link up to the distribution network (one-time payment). It is to be pointed out that until the regulations requiring a shipper’s/marketer’s license have been determined, that this activity remains open to all without a license (subordinate on any other pertinent laws)