Europe in 2022 reduced gas consumption by 10%

According to the annual survey of one of the world leaders in the field of liquefied natural gas, the British-Dutch company Shell, in 2022 Europe reduced gas consumption by 10% compared to 2021 – from 535 billion cubic meters to 480 billion cubic meters.

At the same time, industrial demand fell by 20.6 billion cubic meters. The report notes that industrial consumers have reduced gas consumption by 16% due to high prices. Households reduced consumption by 19.4 billion cubic meters, the commercial sector reduced consumption by almost 10 billion cubic meters. The energy sector has reduced gas demand by only 2.2 billion cubic meters, and transport has even increased by 0.2 billion cubic meters.

Analysts note that the reduction in gas supplies was mainly due to a decrease in supplies from Russia – by 81.8 billion cubic meters, which is almost offset by an increase in imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – by 61.9 billion cubic meters. 

Supplies from North Africa were reduced by 2.2 billion cubic meters. African exports also decreased by 0.7 billion cubic meters. Gas supplies from Norway increased by 7.1 billion cubic meters of gas, and domestic production increased by 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

It also follows from Shell's review that Europe's primary energy consumption has decreased from about 73 to 71 thousand petajoules, and oil still accounts for a third of demand. Gas consumption decreased slightly, despite the increase in the share of LNG. Coal consumption has hardly changed, the demand for nuclear energy has slightly decreased, while the use of renewable energy sources has slightly increased (in 2022, the share of renewable energy in the total energy balance was no more than 12%).