Azernews.Az

Europe's need for gas imports will inevitably increase due to a decrease in domestic gas production, Vladimir Drebentsov, BP's chief economist for Russia and CIS countries, said in Baku October 14.

Drebentsov made this statement at the presentation of BP’s statistics analysis on world energy for 2015 and outlook up to 2035.

He said that the shale gas revolution in Europe would not happen, as it did in the US.

"Much shale gas in Europe is expected to be produced in Great Britain,” Drebentsov said. “But this will not greatly affect the general situation.”

“There are several reasons for the gas production decline in Europe,” he said. “But one of the most important reasons is that the nature of the ownership of natural resources in the US and Europe greatly differs.”

"An owner of the land is also an owner of the resources on this land plot in the US,” he said. “But the situation is different in Europe. The natural resources are owned by the state."

“In other words, the owner of the land in the US can make a profit from using natural resources found there, rather than in Europe,” he said.

"No matter how trivial it may sound, but this is one of the fundamental differences used in Europe against the extraction of natural resources,” he said. “For example, one of the largest shale gas deposits is located near Vienna, but it is hard to imagine that gas will be produced in Vienna."

He said that at the same time, Europe will import liquefied natural gas most of all, adding that the traditional import of gas through pipelines would be significant.

"This gas will be in demand too," Drebentsov said.

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