European gas demand was volatile through 2008, with some countries seeing slight declines in demand. However, the longer term forecast is continued growth for the Eastern European gas market as new gas-fired power plants come on-stream.

‘The Eastern European Gas Market Outlook 2009’ is a newly updated report published by Business Insights that examines the role of gas in each of the major Eastern European markets and analyses the differences that exist in terms of gas self sufficiency, and future growth of demand. This report provides new and updated analysis of 12 Eastern European gas markets, with detailed data on supply and demand balances. Each country profile features supply and demand overviews, an examination of key governmental, legal and political influences on the sector and an analysis of wholesale trading and the pipeline, LNG and storage infrastructure.

Key Findings

Several new gas export projects are under way or being planned in Russia, including the Nord Stream under the Baltic Sea, as well as LNG exports. The Russian gas market is dominated by Gazprom, in which the state is the controlling shareholder.

Romania remains the largest producer of gas in the Central and Eastern European region. Although production has been declining in recent years, a number of infrastructure developments have been planned including the introduction of double storage capacity and new cross-border interconnections with the Ukraine and Bulgaria.

The Czech Republic has experienced strong demand growth has in recent years. Although coal is still the dominant fuel, with 45% of primary energy use, gas is becoming a key part of the country’s energy mix.

Slovakia is in a strong position to take commercial advantage of liberalizing European markets due to the country’s close proximity to some of the largest Russian export pipelines, its sizeable storage capacity and its ability to easily increase transit volumes.

Key features

• Profiles of each country’s gas infrastructure including transit and distribution pipelines and their ownership, storage capacities and full colour maps of gas grids.

• An understanding of Eastern European gas regulation, including local legislation, competitive conditions and market reforms.

• Gas supply data in billion cubic metres as well as production, pipeline imports and exports by country and LNG imports.

• Gas demand data by consumer type divided into residential, non-residential and power generation in billion cubic metres.

• An overview of wholesale gas trading market in each country focussing on the market owners and operators, the active players, liquidity and future prospects.

• Gas demand forecasts for each country to 2020, in addition to market trends detailing gas production and demand by sector.