Energy Global: European gas market: Quarterly report

The mild weather over the 2013 - 2014 winter along with only small improvements in economic performance have meant relatively stable gas consumption levels in Europe during the period, relative to the 2012 – 2013 winter period.

Gas has continued to lose its share in the power generation sector to coal and renewables. In 2013, gas attained 12.4% of electricity production in the EU, down from 2011 levels of 16%.

At the end of the first half of this year, the situation in Ukraine had had no observable impact on imports of natural gas from Russia into the EU. However, by the same time imports from Russia had hit record levels. Yet, the growth in imports of natural gas from Russia in2014 has been considerably less than in 2013.

Imports of piped gas from Russia to the EU increased by 7% between the start of 2013 and the first half of 2014 but pipeline imports from Norway and North Africa dropped between the time period.
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