Natural gas supply. Features of contractual regulation.

The article reveals the main approaches to determining the legal nature of the natural gas supply contract, men-tioned in the researchers of Soviet and modern Ukrainian civilians. The author gives a description of the natural gas supply contract, which by its legal nature contains the features of various civil law contracts - supply contract, transportation contract, public contract, connection contract, etc. The analysis of the main features, essential con-ditions of the natural gas supply contract, which distinguishes this contract from other civil obligations in order to distinguish the main characteristics of the relevant type of obligation as an independent.Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the Law of Ukraine “On Natural Gas Market”, the Rules of natural gas supply and the Standard contract for natural gas supply to household consumers, approved by the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, Ukraine and other regulations in the gas sector, which set out the essential terms of the contract for the supply of natural gas and the necessary requirements for its conclusion with the consumer. The conditions which are binding on the parties and established by the Regulator and those which are fixed at the discretion of the parties to the contract are specified.It is also necessary during researching of natural gas contracts determine a distinction between the conditions established for household consumers and enshrined in the model contract and non-household consumers who use gas for professional and / or commercial activities under the conditions provided for in Section II of the Rules for the supply of natural gas. Another aspect of the article is the study of the long-term development and improvement of natural gas contracts by creating transparent and competitive conditions between consumers in the market as an independent civil obligation.