Azerbaijan, Baku, April 26 /Trend, A.Badalova/
Gas demand in the EU will grow to 620 billion cubic meters by 2020, analysts of one of the largest U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley predict.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts the gas demand in European countries at the level of 591 billion cubic meters for the reported period.
According to the expectations of analysts of Morgan Stanley, weak growth in demand will occur in the industrial sector in the region.
The report of analysts says that the political unrest occurring in the Middle East and North Africa have not yet had a significant impact on the European market, except Italy, which suffered from the overlap of Green Stream pipeline, via which the country received Libyan gas.
Nevertheless, the greatest threat to European gas market is imposed by the unrest in Algeria, Morgan Stanley analysts say.
Algeria is a major supplier of gas to the EU after Russia and Norway. According to estimates of Eurogas, in 2009, 10 percent of gas supplies to the EU accounted for Algeria. The organization forecasts that by 2030 gas demand in 27 EU countries will grow to 637 billion cubic meters.
In the long-term outlook the European countries plan to meet the growing demand for gas at the expense of alternative pipeline projects. Priority energy project for the EU is the Southern Gas Corridor project, which provides diversification of energy supplies to the EU.
According to the forecasts of the European Commission, EU dependence on gas imports will increase to 73-79 percent by 2020 and 81-89 percent by 2030.