The European Union’s demand for natural gas has been declining for 2 consecutive years, reported Eurostat. After a 13.3 per cent yearly decrease in 2022, demand fell by another 7.4 per cent in 2023, totalling 12.72 million terajoules in 2023. This also marks the lowest demand recorded since the collection of monthly cumulated data began in 2008.
This reduction has been affected by measures outlined in the Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1369 on coordinated demand-reduction measures for gas, as part of the REPowerEU plan to end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, as well as the ongoing energy crisis and the increase of energy prices.
In 2023, the largest natural gas consumers in the EU reduced their demand. Germany recorded a 2.96 million terajoules demand (-3.8 per cent compared with 2022), Italy 2.35 million terajoules (-10.0 per cent) and France 1.36 million terajoules (-11.7 per cent).
Looking at all EU countries, demand decreased in 21 out of 27 countries, with increases recorded in Finland (+25.6 per cent), Sweden (+11.1 per cent), Poland (+5.3 per cent), Malta (+4.5 per cent), Denmark (+1.1 per cent) and Croatia (+0.8 per cent).