Abstract
Natural gas markets have been traditionally territorialized within the nation-state apparatus. However, since the early 1980s, the territoriality of these markets has been evolving through liberalization, cross-border market integration, and globalization in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade. These dynamics have materialized unevenly across the global economy. While natural gas market liberalization has been implemented in the United States and Europe, natural gas markets in most Asian countries continue to be firmly controlled by regulated or state-owned natural gas monopolies. This is the case in Thailand, where despite multiple reform efforts since the 1990's, the partially privatized, state-owned natural gas company, PTT Public Company Limited, continues to hold a lucrative monopoly over markets in Thailand. In this article, I explain why natural gas market liberalization in Thailand has failed to materialize by drawing upon an analytical toolkit that includes both territorial and topological notions of power. In doing so, I aim to contribute to geographical studies of energy by demonstrating the different arrangements by which powerful actors may reproduce their authority over energy systems. PTT has historically maintained its reach over natural gas markets through the exclusive yet contested authority of the Thai-state over domestic natural gas resources and infrastructure. However, more recently, this authority has been transformed by LNG imports and the introduction of natural gas sector reforms in Thailand. Nevertheless, I find that PTT continues to reproduce its monopoly in gas markets by quietly working through regulations, contracts, and pricing regimes.
Highlights
Several energy geographers have argued for a stronger analytical focus on the notion of territoriality in order to highlight and problematize the geographical and spatial forms created through energy systems and their transformations (Bridge and Bradshaw, 2017; Bridge, 2018; Bouzarovski et al, 2015)
As extensive arrangements of power surrounding authority over territorial and managerial control are spatially distorted through liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and Third Party Access (TPA) regimes, I suggest that PTT is able to work through intensive arrangements of power to maintain its reach into Thai Gas Markets by drawing customers into its relational proximity and keeping competitors at a distance
Based on this paper’s empirical case study of natural gas reforms in Thailand, I conclude that such an analytical approach can better equip energy geographers to explain why the territoriality of energy systems is geographically differentiated according to different national contexts
Summary
Several energy geographers have argued for a stronger analytical focus on the notion of territoriality in order to highlight and problematize the geographical and spatial forms created through energy systems and their transformations (Bridge and Bradshaw, 2017; Bridge, 2018; Bouzarovski et al, 2015). I continue the theoretical discussion through an empirical analysis of the territorial and topological arrangements of power by which PTT’s monopoly over natural gas markets in Thailand has been reproduced, despite liberalization efforts since the 1990's. The “spatial-turn” in energy research entails accounting for the spatial outcomes of certain technologies and practices, and analyzing how socio-spatial processes shape and form energy systems (Bridge, 2018) By alluding to these processes, energy geographers aim to explain the spatial configuration and scales of organization in energy systems, in addition to highlighting geographical differences, and drawing attention to spatial relations of production and consumption (Bridge et al, 2013). One focus area where geographical insights has been well positioned is drawing attention to the territoriality of energy resources and infrastructure (Bridge et al, 2013; Huber, 2018)
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