Brussels, 05/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The EU strategy for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas storage, which the Commission is to propose in the framework of its winter package for the Energy Union, on Wednesday 10 February, is based on increased regional cooperation to build the missing links in the EU's infrastructure chain and strong international cooperation with the countries which export LNG.
The strategy has two aims: in order to increase its energy security, benefit from the prospects of a considerable increase (50%) in the global availability of LNG (thanks to the exploitation of significant liquefaction capacity in Australia and the United States between now and 2020 and potentially large availability elsewhere, such as the Mediterranean) and, consequently, lower LNG prices in the future; the aim is also to allow its member states of the Baltic and Central and Eastern European regions, which are dependent on a single supplier and extremely vulnerable to interruptions to gas supply, rapidly to develop resources to access LNG.
The Commission argues that exploiting the growth potential of the international LNG market and making the EU market attractive requires three things: - an assurance that the necessary infrastructure is in place, particularly in the countries of the eastern EU; the completion of the single gas market, to allow it to send out the right signals to attract both LNG and the necessary investments in infrastructure; - reinforcement of cooperation with international partners to promote a free-flowing and transparent market and reinforce or set in place dialogue with current and future suppliers.
Furthermore, the anticipated evolution of the LNG markets requires a change of the gas storage installations of the EU, which play a key role in optimising the infrastructure of the gas system and its balance and in favour of the security of supply for the EU, but the potential of which is underexploited.
In order to complete the infrastructure missing from the single market, the Commission is aiming for increased regional cooperation. It considers that it is “of the highest priority” to speed up the final decisions on priority projects to access to LNG identified by each of the three regional groups set in place to reinforce interconnections between the countries of each of these regions - Central and South-Eastern Europe (CESEC), the Baltic region (BEMIP) and South-Western Europe (France and the Iberian peninsular) - and calls on the member states which participate in these groups to make rapid progress on these projects and to draw conclusions as soon as possible on the future viability of LNG terminals. To this end, it recommends basing the work on the recently created Energy Infrastructure Forum. For its own part, it will ensure that the project owners are kept abreast of the available financing options (FESI, MIE, structural funds).
In order to complete the single market and remove the regulatory obstacles, the Commission will focus on initiatives for the three regional groups. For BEMIP, it is proposing that the national regulatory authorities set in place an action plan by mid-2016 to identify the measures needed to manage the end of the derogation set in place by the 'third energy package', in order to open up the Baltic gas market fully and to create a single market zone. For CESEC, it is proposing that the national regulatory authorities create a roadmap by mid-2016 to find regulatory solutions, which will be regularly examined by the high-level group and at ministerial level. For South-Western Europe, it is proposing to work at expert and political level to support the completion of the gas access required to improve connections to the single gas market for the Iberian peninsular and safeguard its access to the LNG platforms.
As regards gas storage, the Commission calls upon the member states to guarantee adequate physical access for storage, including in terms of capacity in the transmission network. To optimise the use of storage, it is aiming for close cooperation between neighbouring countries and the adoption and fine-tuning of network codes. In order to optimise the rule of storage and security of gas supply, the Commission is to revise the regulation on gas security, which will call upon the member states to optimise the effectiveness of the cross-border use of storage by means of prevention and emergency action plans at regional level, allowing the member states to take measures to facilitate the availability of and access to storage installations at regional level.
Internationally, the Commission is aiming for close cooperation with Australia and other major suppliers of LNG, such as Qatar, high-level dialogues on energy with Algeria, the United States and Canada and close cooperation with other current and future suppliers (Nigeria, Egypt, Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania, Israel, Lebanon and potentially Iran, Iraq and Libya). It is also planning to set in place close cooperation with other major importers of LNG, such as Japan and South Korea, in order to promote transparency, liquidity and resilience to external shocks to the LNG markets. Finally, in line with the revision of the decision on the inter-governmental agreements (IGA) between the member states of the EU and third countries in the field of energy, the Commission intends to verify the compliance with EU law of the IGAs on LNG. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)