Report Predicts EU Natural Gas Demand will Fall 5.3% this Year

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Natural gas demand in the European Union (EU) will fall 5.3% this year as the trade region tries to decrease its dependence on Russian imports, according to a report by financial services bank Societe Generale (Paris, France).

Analysts Thierry Bros, Paolo Cogne and Barath Krishnan said that gas demand fell 24% in April from the same month last year in eight EU countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, the U.K., Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. These countries represented 63% of the EU's gas consumption.

"We now see no chance of the 500-bcm [billion cubic meter] level being attained even [in] the case of an extremely cold winter," the report said. It forecast no increase in European gas demand.

Also, energy use in 10 EU nations fell 5.4% from April 2013--the eight countries above, plus Poland and Greece--representing 63% of EU consumption. U.K. gas demand fell 7.2% this year, while the electricity demand fell 2.4%.

"We note that consumption of natural gas and coal for power generation has also decreased, supporting indications that the reduction in electricity demand is not coming from residential customers alone," the report said.

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