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Image courtesy of Gascade
Ten-Year Network Development Plan 2017 Main Report |
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Some specific areas of Europe would require further gas infrastructure to join the
internal energy market. In the South-East part of Europe, the dependence to Russian
gas and related limited diversification hampers competition and would expose the
region in case of disruption of the Ukrainian transit. Solving this situation will require
to further develop the interconnections and to connect the region to new sources.
In the Northern part of Europe, Finland and the Baltic States are still isolated from
the European infrastructure. In addition, the Baltic States face the risk of transit
disruption via Belarus. In the Baltic States, the operational Lithuanian Klaipėda LNG
terminal has already significantly improved the situation. Further improvement is still
desirable. It will require developing the interconnections in the region and ensuring
that access to alternative sources of supply (like LNG) is maintained over time.
The countries in Central-Eastern Europe share a low level of competition and are
exposed to monopolistic behaviour from Russian gas supplies. The competition can
be enhanced by diversifying supply sources in the region.
In Western Europe some areas are still not well connected, such as Ireland or the
Iberian Peninsula. In this last case, reinforcing the interconnections in the region
would increase supply diversification and improve Portugal security of supply. The
decline of the Groningen field will require that the current L-gas areas Germany,
Belgium and France are converted to H-gas and connected to the H-gas network
and the necessary replacing supplies. Malta is currently not connected to Europe
mainland.