European gas consumption may rise: Gazprom

4-Feb-2010

Europeans are expected to consume more natural gas by 2020, a Gazprom executive said at an investment conference this week.

Gazprom, a Russian energy giant, supplies approximately 25 percent of the gas used by the European Union countries. It has a vested interest in rising European gas consumption, partially explaining contract strategy and pricing chief Sergei Komlev's optimism.

Dow Jones Newswires quoted Faith Birol of the International Energy Agency, who disagreed with Komlev's assessment. The IEA predicts that gas use in Europe will decline in the coming decade as alternative energy sources gain in popularity.

Indeed, the European Commission has set a target of quadrupling the use of European wind power by 2020. About 5 percent of Europe's power is wind-generated at present, Business Facilities magazine reported.

Signaling Gazprom's dependence on Europe's gas consumption, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Russian company's most lucrative market is the EU. Demand in the EU fell last year, the Journal reported, due to the economic slowdown and rising consumption of Norwegian gas.

But Gazprom doesn't "see a catastrophic decline in demand," Komlev said.

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