EU Gas Demand Rises in Power, Heating Sectors

The 28 member states of the European Union collectively used 7% more gas in 2016, compared with 2015, according to gas lobby group Eurogas. A cold winter and a switch to gas in the power sector helped cut CO₂ emissions by 4.5% in 2016, it said April 10.

Gas demand reached 456.3bn m³ last year, according to this table, compared with 428.1bn m³ in 2015. Demand rose in all cases and also in Switzerland – not a member of the EU – except for Finland.

Cyprus does not have any natural gas demand; nor did Malta last year although it has since become an LNG importer.

“In the UK, power sector CO₂ emissions even decreased by as much as 18.7% thanks to gas,” Eurogas secretary-general Beate Raabe (pictured below) said, “and its potential to reduce CO₂ emissions in all sectors is still large: 66% in power generation, 42% in heating and 25% in transport. Blend in renewable gas over time and emissions can go towards zero.”

As the winters of 2015 and 2016 were colder, more gas was particularly used for heating in EU households. But a "lot more electricity was produced from gas in France (+61%), where combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) became more competitive, and in the Netherlands," it said.

(Credit: Eurogas)

Also in Germany, electricity from gas stepped in during lower wind availability in 2016. And as full electrification has high costs and technical limits, the flexibility and energy storage capability of the existing gas grid are becoming more apparent, it said.

Gas demand in the region was also higher in 2015 than in 2014, according to Eurogas' statistics, but by just 4%. Russia exported record amounts last year, as it did the year before as well. The price at Europe's gas hubs was too low to attract any large volumes of LNG; and indigenous production was lower in The Netherlands. However, export monopoly Gazprom had to shed a lot of staff in Europe as the wholesale price tumbled.

William Powell