• 06 Apr 2016

Gas consumption increased last year by approximately 4% compared with 2014, according to the latest estimates from Eurogas. This rise, the first in four years, was mirrored by an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports highlighting further diversification of supply and, once again, the flexibility of gas as a fuel.

Eurogas figures, suggest that gas consumption in the EU-28 amounted to 426.3 billion cubic metres (bcm), in 2015, with  volume increases registered mainly in Italy (+5.5 bcm, with an increase of 9.1% compared to 2014), ahead of Germany (+3.5 bcm, up + 4.7%), France (+3.0 bcm, or + 7.8%), Belgium (+1.4 bcm, up 9.5%) and Spain (+1.5 bcm, up 4.4%), while some other countries continued to see decreases in demand.

LNG made up the largest share of gains in imports for some countries. In Belgium, Lithuania and the Netherlands, for example, LNG imports roughly doubled, while Italian LNG imports increased by more  30% year-on-year.

 Changes in demand in the power sector also varied with some countries seeing gas demand for cooling (e.g. Greece +9,1% and Italy +7,4%), while others experienced a decline due to various factors such as tax regimes discouraging gas consumption (e.g. Finland and Estonia) or  to the continued favour won by coal (e.g. in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands).

Development in the compressed natural gas (CNG) market took noticeable advance in the Czech market where CNG consumption increased by 46% year-on-year.