Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
In 2018 as whole, net gas imports in the EU was 363 billion cubic meters (bcm), up from 353 bcm in 2017, Trend reports with reference to the European Commission.
Taking into the annual gas consumption (474 bcm) net imports covered 77 percent of the total gas consumption, reads a report of the European Commission.
“In the fourth quarter of 2018, net imports increased by 8 percent compared to the same period of 2017. In most of the EU countries net imports increased measurably in Q4 2018, however, among the bigger gas consumers it decreased in Italy (11 percent), France (6 percent) and in Spain (4 percent) over the same period of the previous year. In the Netherlands net gas imports amounted to 1.3 bcm in Q4 2018, however, in the same period of 2017 the country was a net gas exporter (3.3 bcm),” said the European Commission.
The report shows that in the fourth quarter of 2018 the total net EU gas imports reached 100 bcm, while in the same period of 2017 it was only 92 bcm.
In 2018 as whole, Russia remained the biggest pipeline gas supplier of the EU, with a share of 43 percent, followed by Norway (33 percent), Algeria (9 percent) and Libya (1 percent), according to the Commission.
“The liquefied natural gas imports (LNG) ensured 14 percent of the EU's natural gas imports. These import shares showed only minor changes compared to 2017. In 2018 gas imports from Russia and Algeria were slightly up by 1 percent, while imports from Norway decreased by 2 percent and from Libya by more than 4 percent LNG imports remained practically the same in 2018 as a year before.”
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