Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 18 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
The European gas market is undergoing a transformation now, European energy expert Alexandr Rahr said.
"At present, the entire European gas market is in transformation," the expert told Trend over phone on Monday.
He said that at present, there are factors of uncertainty on the global gas market, for example, a shale gas revolution in the U.S.
"The U.S became not only independent on its gas supply, it can now export liquefied gas itself," Trend Expert Council member Rahr said.
He added that the volume of gas supply on the European market will increase in the coming years. "This means that gas prices will not grow as rapidly as before," the expert said.
In his view, this will lead to many questions. The gas society, politics and gas business will have to answer. Therefore, it is difficult to predict how the European gas market will look in the future, Rahr said.
According to the analyst, another important factor is that the demand for gas in Asia is growing.
"Now we will see that the main gas sales market will shift from Europe to Asia," the expert said. "This will happen quickly."
In his view, such countries as Turkmenistan, Russia and Kazakhstan, understand this and so they are trying to build a base in the East. At the same time, the European market will continue its dependence on the gas. Alternative fuel sources are still too expensive.
"Europe will continue to be in need of gas, but the main issue in this situation is the price," Rahr said.
In his view, the price is an important factor for investors who will build pipelines.
They need to know whether to invest in such expensive systems or not, the analyst said.