The purpose of this Act is: to create an efficient natural gas market; to exercise the principles of energy efficiency and conservation in the interest of sustainable development; to supply natural gas to the consumers in a safe and smooth way, of adequate quality and at a transparent price; to integrate the national natural gas market into EU markets. The Act must be applied to: (a) the transport through pipelines, the distribution, stocking, trade, consumption and use of natural gas; (b) the operation of natural gas supplying systems; (c) direct services on the site; (d) the installation and operation of direct lines; (e) the development of infrastructures; (f) the supply and distribution of petroleum gas; (g) activities subject to licensing in the field of natural gas supply. The Act consists of 19 Chapters (and of 159 Articles) dealing with the following matters: introductory provisions (Chapt. 1); activities of the natural gas industry (Chapt. 2); promotion of competition on the natural gas market (Chapt. 3); users and consumer protection (Chapt. 4); connection, access and capacity purchase (Chapt. 5); establishment and operation of transport and distribution pipelines and of storage capacity (Chapt. 6); system balance, supply disorder, crisis, resctriction (Chapt. 7); measurement and accounting (Chapt. 8); price regulation and monitoring (Chapt. 9); business regulations (Chapt. 10); licensing (Chapt. 11); sanctions (Chapt. 12); partition of activities (Chapt. 13); common rules concerning certain events subject to corporate law (Chapt. 14); data supply, secrecy, information management (Chapt. 15); legal status, duties and competencies of the Hungarian National Energy Agency (Chapt. 16); mandatory provisions (Chapt. 17); transitional provisions (Chapt. 18); final provisions (Chapt. 19).