A UNECE-OIES half-day event will assess critical moving parts in the European natural gas sector by offering analytical views of gas market fundamentals, market and regulatory risks, and the role gas will play in the energy transition. It will include sessions on:
• the outlook for gas supply in the current tight market context, where prices remain high. This session highlights the challenge of replenishing seasonal gas storage stocks in summer 2025 and the obstacles to (and possibilities for) limited Russian pipeline gas supply return before the wave of new LNG supply arrives;
• the changing role for gas in Europe amidst the energy transition. This session will focus on recent gas demand trends and some considerations for the next five years, including how gas partners with renewables in the power sector, whether any recovery in the industrial sector is even conceivable, and its continuous role as a critical resource for heating in residential and commercial sectors;
• the role of EU decarbonisation policies and regulation. This session will focus on decarbonisation of the EU gas system, which is expected to transport decreasing volumes of unabated methane and increasing volumes of renewable and low carbon gases, and parts of which are envisaged to be re-purposed to transport hydrogen. It will explore whether the EU renewable and natural gas and hydrogen package provides sufficient flexibility and enables network development coordination, ensuring that security of supply is not jeopardised. This session will also assess the early implemenation of the EU methane regulation and its potential impact on European gas imports.
The workshop will be followed by a moderated, interactive discussion involving members of the UNECE Group of Experts on Gas, representatives of the Geneva-based UN member States and of the commodity trading community, the intergovernmental energy organizations such as the International Energy Agency and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, and many others.
