EC Makes Plans to Safeguard Security of Natural Gas Supply
November 14, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The European Commission (EC) published a new communication on natural gas supply in the European Union (EU) as part of its comprehensive Nov. 13 energy security package.
In its new communication, the EC stated that the EU needs to take a step forward on security of gas supply and solidarity. The communication aims at opening a debate among EU member states and European institutions, as well as with the stakeholders, in order to prepare a revision of directive EC 2004/67, the current directive on security of natural gas supplies.
Natural gas is currently the second most important fuel in the EU's energy mix, representing roughly a quarter of EU gross inland consumption. Possible natural gas supply crises could have very high economic and social impacts. Therefore, the EU needs to be prepared to tackle security of supply in an effective way.
The EC contends the current European Community mechanism is not sufficient to provide a timely response to a crisis that goes beyond the level that industry and national measures can mitigate.
Furthermore, today's lack of transparency on security of gas supply data and measures prevents the assessment of the real-time gas supply situation and of potential responses within the EU.
Due to several factors, which include a country's geographic position, historical development of individual gas markets and existing interconnections, member states are in very different situations with regards to the security of their gas supplies.
At present, there are significant inconsistencies in how member states define the roles and responsibilities of various market players and the range of the protected customers.
Also, the security of supply standards vary among member states. This means there is a different level to which each member state is able to maintain adequate gas supplies to defined customers by its own means under extreme circumstances, such as supply disruptions or extreme climate conditions.
These inconsistencies might constitute a hindrance to cross-border co-operation during crises and to the development of effective solidarity arrangements.
The internal natural gas market is under development, with natural gas markets mainly having a regional character. Several countries are linked along the same major pipeline infrastructure and member states depend on each other's actions and consumption.
Regional cooperation is therefore crucial and may be able to offer a timely response in case of a crisis. However, at the same time, a supply shortage is most likely to affect a whole region, which might not be able to cope with it alone. At this stage, an EU-level response would be needed.
The EC put forward a number of options for each element of the directive that need improvement along with its implementation, with particular attention to a more suitable definition of security of supply standards, greater transparency concerning security of gas supply data and the establishment of an EU gas emergency plan.
For more information, see the EC's web sites on Second Strategic Energy Review - Securing our Energy Future and on Energy Policy for a Competitive Europe.
Source: European Commission.