GGP: EU Energy Supply and its Strategic Interests for Interregional Energy Cooperation with the Eastern Mediterranean Rim
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This is an excerpt from an article originally published by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in June 2017.
Despite the EU’s efforts to reduce Europe’s gas consumption and its import demand as well as for diversifying its gas imports from various countries, Europe still has to cope with its legacy of high dependence on gas pipeline imports from Russia based on long-term contracts, its oil-price indexation and rigid contract clauses.
In 2010, 13 European countries still relied on Russia for more than 80 percent of their total gas consumption; and a total of 17 countries were dependent on Russia for more than 80 percent of their gas imports. In total, 35 percent of EU-27 gas imports depended on Russia. In addition, most of the Central and East European (CEE) countries had been locked into contracts for overpriced Russian gas. Those contracts have been significantly more expensive than Russian gas supplies for Germany and other western EU-member states - despite the fact of a considerably longer transport distance of the latter. Until the mid-2020s, European gas companies will contractually be obliged to annually import around 115 bcm, which will decline to around 65- 100 bcm by 2030.
In order to strengthen its future energy security, the European Commission’s energy demand management strategy has emphasized the broadest possible energy mix, diversification of energy supply and imports, promotion of renewable energies, enhancing energy efficiency and conservation as well as maintaining a neutral policy towards the nuclear option since 2007. According to some estimates, the EU’s new energy security strategy and efficiency as well as energy conservation efforts agreed in 2014 will further lower its gas import demand from Russia by another 12 per cent by 2030. For any analysis of the future energy cooperation between the EU and the East Mediterranean countries (Israel, Cyprus, Egypt and Lebanon) with their newly discovered oil and gas resources, it is needed at first to analyse the EU’s changing energy security conditions, including its future gas (import) demand. In a second step, the analysis will look to the prospects and determining factors of potential gas exports from the East Mediterranean countries to the EU.
Dr. Frank Umbach is Research Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at King‘s College, London and Associate Senior Fellow at the Centre for European Security Strategies (CESS), Munich. He also works as an international consultant for the private sector, governments and international organizations on international energy security. Previously he has worked as a Senior Fellow for the Energy and Environment Program of the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. and for more than ten years Dr. Umbach was Head of the Program 'International Energy Security' at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). He has authored more than 400 publications, including 'Global Energy Security: Strategic Challenges for the European and German Foreign Policy'.
The statements, opinions and data contained in the content published in Global Gas Perspectives are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s) of Natural Gas World.