In recent years, the field of natural gas in the EU is extremely dynamic, especially in a view of ensuring reliable supplies. Member states are increasingly being offered the possibility of consumption of natural gas, because there are many new gas facilities being built. Thus, countries can choose to purchase gas from suppliers of liquefied natural gas, or gas providers of pipelines associated countries. The development of the EU gas market in the future will depend on various import routes and natural gas pricing models.
The first chapter is the introduction to the thesis. The second chapter describes the general characteristics of natural gas, supply routes and storage options. The third chapter presents development of the current gas market while the forth and the fifth chapters present energy image of the EU in the relation to the fields mentioned in the previous sections. In the sixth chapter I present some information about consumption, imports and exports of natural gas in EU, followed by simulation with various scenarios of possible developments of the future gas market within the EU in the seventh chapter. The eighth chapter presents the conclusion thus quitting the thesis.
Based on the acquired data, I conclude that the action in the EU gas market will be increasingly diverse, especially in the next few years, when it promises a lot of new pipeline and liquefied natural gas import and export terminals. I cannot predict with certainty which pricing model will prevail, due to the large number of factors that determine development. It is why I used few different scenarios to present these factors and the likelihood of development plus consequences of each scenario on the future natural gas market.
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