The two gas trading hubs in the south of France will merge on April 1, power trading group Powernext said on Tuesday, marking a first step towards a unified French gas platform aimed at preventing the large price swings currently seen in the market. France is divided into three gas hubs, but pipeline bottlenecks between the northern hub called Peg Nord and the southeastern Peg Sud prevent Norwegian and Russian pipeline imports from flowing to the south of the country. This makes Peg Sud, and the third gas hub, TIGF, in the southwest, more dependent on relatively more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, weighing on local industry's competitiveness.