Spanish Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, intervened yesterday in a new problem plaguing the energy sector: the tariff deficit that has accumulated in the natural gas industry.
Soria explained that Secretary of State for Energy, Fernando Martí, is working on a deep reform in order to try and stem 229 million euros in deficits that have been recorded since 2011 and face rising costs of gas infrastructure projects such as, for example, the Castor storage facility that is lifting tolls by eight percent.
The government's aim is to avoid repeating what happened when electricity markets were battered as the tariff deficit grew to greater than 24 billion euros and provoked one of the biggest economic problems affecting Spain today.
For Soria, the current deficit is "a warning call" and an incentive to enact a reform that prevents further imbalances in the tariff budget and, at the same time, "guarantees that companies can remain competitive and preserve their rights."
