Gaz De France Suez: Caspian gas may diversify European energy supplies

"We have felt a serious crisis, which we still have not managed to escape in Europe, and the consequences of this crisis have been very serious for the gas market," he said.

According to Hochart, the United States has started to produce gas from unconventional sources (such as shale gas).

"Europe's gas market fell back five years due to the crisis," he said. "This means that we need somewhere around five years to reach the pre-crisis level. We are talking about the amounts of liquefied natural gas produced in Qatar and Yemen. Previously, it was delivered to the United States, but now the United States is reducing the volume of imported gas and this gas is supplied to markets in Europe."

Today, Europe is experiencing a crisis in deliveries, he added.

"We have a lot of gas, but no market to absorb all of these volumes," Hochart said. "We understand that demand is falling and we hope that this process will be temporary."

European markets must absorb the volumes of gas that are now being delivered by 2015, he said. Based on forecasts, there may be shortage of gas supplies amounting to approximately 70 to 100 billion cubic meters after 2015, Hochart said.

GDF Suez is party to a contract to explore and develop the prospective Absheron structure in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Participants in Absheron are the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic - 40%, Total - 40% and Gaz De France Suez - 20%.


/Trend/