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Gas Regional Investment Plan of the South Region 2017 |
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2.2 Challenges for the
European Gas Market
Gas consumption in Europe shows a declining general
trend due to the impact of the reduced economic
growth, the loss of competitiveness of gas compared to
coal, increased energy efficiency and the development
of renewable energy. However, due to the climate
conditions and an increase in electricity production from
gas, there was a slight increase of total gas demand in
South Region in 2015 and 2016.
The current worldwide context, with the LNG price convergence in Europe, United
States, and Asia shows that currently there are less opportunities for European ship-
pers to re-export LNG to other locations than previously. However, this does not
mean that in the future there will be no opportunities to re-export LNG from Europe
to other continents.
The implementation of decisions adopted with regards to energy efficiency and the
development of renewable energies may continue to impact the use of natural gas
in the medium term, but as was stated in the above worldwide context section 2.1,
natural gas has interesting opportunities in future worldwide and European energy
mix, such as coal phase out, transportation, and complementing intermittent renew-
ables.
Europe has developed several energy strategies, namely: the 2020, 2030 and 2050
Energy Strategies and the Energy Security Strategy. Of those European strategies, we
highlight the objectives for the gas sector:
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The multi dimension Energy Union and Climate Strategy, made up of five
closely related and mutually reinforcing dimensions, including: supply security,
solidarity and trust; achieving a fully-integrated internal energy market; energy
efficiency; climate action; and research, innovation and competitiveness. The
implementation of the Gas Target Model promoted by the European Commis-
sion continues with the adoption of regulations to achieve European integration.
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The LNG and Storage Strategy aims to exploit the potential of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) and gas storage to make the EU gas system more diverse and
flexible, thus contributing to the key Energy Union objective of a secure, resilient
and competitive gas supply.
Aware of the major financial constraints and significant economic stakes presented
by energy issues, the European Commission is encouraging project promoters to
perform cost-benefit analyses to determine which projects are the most promising
within the framework of the “Projects of Common Interest” process.