How the European Union looks for gas in Central Asia

In the long term, joining Ashgabat to the TANAP project threatens to Gazprom with a significant intensification of competition on the European gas market.

The competition for the European gas market has intensified. After the outbreak of the conflict in the Ukraine, the priority for the EU became to reduce its dependence on Russian supplies, now less than a third of the total consumption. But to talk about 27% of the European gas market in the hands of Gazprom is the same thing as to talk about an average temperature of a hospital: Finland, the Baltic states, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe import from 70% to 100% of their gas from Russia.

Russia is now actively promoting its Turkish Stream - a pipeline across the Black Sea to Turkey, where a gas hub for the EU will be placed on the border with Greece. Brussels is trying to counter this project with the Southern Gas Corridor – a pipelines system, extending from the Caspian region through Turkey to southern Europe. It is a priority project for the import substitution of the Russian gas.