The National Gas and Industrialization Company (GASCO) says it is ready for competition in the liquefied gas sector.

Cabinet recently ended GASCO’s monopoly but allowed it to continue operating in the market for five years through marketing and distributing gas and its derivatives.

Muhammad Al-Shabnan, GASCO’s general manager, had said earlier that the company was prepared for all options. “The company's financial position, or market share will not be affected, since any new investor will probably need about three years to start operations.”

The Council of Competition Protection (CCP), chaired by Minister of Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, recommended last year that competitors should be allowed in the market, according to a source.

Other recommendations, said the source, included that the council should proceed with a study to distribute gas through pipelines to households in Riyadh, and a project for distributing liquefied and dry gas for residential and commercial purposes.

These steps come in the wake of many criticisms concerning the current mechanisms for distributing gas by cylinders, which have been described as “bombs” by some.

Interested parties said that an underground network pipeline would be a safer way to deliver gas to houses and facilities than the traditional cylinder.

The technique is advanced because it allows cutting off the gas supply if a leak occurs in any part of the pipeline, said one observer.

The service can be delivered via a national network linked with the main fields of supply, feeding sub-networks heading to the main cities of the Kingdom.

The sources said the Supreme Economic Council is considering these recommendations.