The European Parliament’s draft recommendations on the EU strategy for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas storage, prepared by Andras Gyürk (EPP, Hungary) and adopted by the energy committee on Monday 26 September, argue for better use of existing gas storage capacity and increased support for less connected regions.
The energy committee calls for the most efficient use possible to be made of existing LNG terminals with a cross border perspective, before supporting new regasification terminals. MEPs stress, too, that regional cooperation, an adequate level of gas interconnections and the removal of internal bottlenecks could significantly improve the utilisation rate of existing gas storages.
MEPs call for more efficiency in the use of current excess capacities in European gas storage to avoid technology lock-in or stranded assets in fossil fuel infrastructure and they say that consumers should not have to bear the costs of any new projects. They suggest that harmonised tariff structures across the EU and increased transparency in tariff definition could lead to a higher utilisation rate of existing gas storages.
With a view to increasing LNG connections and storage capacity, the Gyürk report underlines the importance and the effectiveness of the work being done by high-level regional groups such as those for Central and South Eastern Europe Gas Connectivity (CESEC), for the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) and for South-Western Europe (France-Iberian Penusula Interconnection).
It also stresses the importance of finding cost efficient and environmentally sustainable energy supply solutions to increase supply security in member states at the periphery of the EU, such as Cyprus, Malta and Ireland.
MEPs also express concern at plans to double the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline, and warn that this could have a counterproductive impact on energy security and diversification of supply sources and the principle of solidarity among member states.
The Gyürk report will be put to the vote in the second of the October plenary sessions. The EU strategy for LNG and gas storage was presented by the commission in February as part of the gas security strategy (see EUROPE 11484 and 11491). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)