Those things are natural monopolies, so the choice isn't monopoly vs free-market it's profit-driven-monopoly vs public-good-driven-monopoly.

Unlike what's said by the mindless pseudo-Economics bollocks a lot of prople have been indoctrinated with, the upsides for consumers of a Free Market only exist in the subset of markets were there are natural conditions for high levels of competition - which is most definitelly not gas provision to households - and even in those there are still systemic problems such as negative externalities that require some level of regulation.