Natural gas supply for the EU in the short to medium term

For the European Union it is predicted that gas will become the fastest growing source of energy, increasing in share of total EU energy consumption from 21% in 2001 to 27% in 2020. At the same time indigenous production will decrease so that the EU will increasingly become dependent on imports. This paper makes an inventory of and critically reviews the widely quoted publications which assess the options for the EU's natural gas supply up to 2010. In contrast to the more optimistic tone set by most of the publications used as reference material for this study, the paper concludes that supply for especially the North West European market might easily be very tight by 2010. The report features an overview of the perspectives for supplies from Norway, Algeria, Russia and LNG sources. Particular attention is also paid to the increasing importance of indigenous production and flexibility instruments for the accommodation of growing import volumes.