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South-North Corridor GRIP 2017 |
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Image courtesy of Fluxys TENP
5.4 The South-North Corridor:
A Bridge Between New
Needs and New Sources
As indicated at the beginning of this chapter, EU
supply needs, defined as the difference between the
EU demand and the indigenous production, are very
likely to increase under most of the future scenarios.
In particular, the combination of the different demand
scenarios with decreasing expectations for the indige-
nous production leads to increasing supply needs over
time in the ENTSOG TYNDP 2017 Blue Transition and
Green Evolution scenarios.
The requirement for extra supply needs appears specifically stringent in the
North-West Europe Region, affected by the accelerated cut of the L-gas production
from the Groningen field (in the Netherlands), as decided by Dutch authorities for
earthquake-related motivations. If the decline of the European production is an
EU-wide concern, this issue is even more significant with regard to L-gas production
due to the fact that L- and H-gas are not immediately substitutable
3)
. In Germany,
Belgium and France (the main countries using L-gas besides the Netherlands), a
continuous and impacting process of converting areas currently supplied by L-gas
to H-gas is already ongoing, in order to get the systems progressively adapted and
fully supplied with H-gas by 2030, when the end of the Dutch L-gas exports to these
countries is planned.
3) For a complete description of the L- to H-gas conversion subject, please make reference to the North West GRIP 2017,
available at the webpage:
http://www.entsog.eu/publications/gas-regional-investment-plan-grips.