The European natural gas system through the lens of data platforms

Finally, after two years of work, we finished our paper on the ENTSOG and GIE transparency platforms! Always good to get things done, especially after endeavors such as writing a full-length article for a scientific journal.

What is it about?

Crosslink to corresponding LinkedIn post: The European natural gas system through the lens of data platforms

The ENTSOG Transparency Platform (TP) and the GIE transparency initiatives AGSI+ and ALSI have evolved into indispensable data resources for numerous public and private entities. They provide key indicators on natural gas transport, regasification and storage with noteworthy temporal resolution on a per facility/cross-border interconnector basis.

In this paper, we highlight the significance of leveraging ENTSOG and GIE TP data to monitor the European Union’s security of gas supply. We demonstrate how the use of Europe’s gas pipeline network has changed over time, with the most profound transformations observed in 2022. Geopolitical events, specifically Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, prompted a reversal of traditional flow patterns from East to West, resulting in entirely new operational regimes in certain network areas. Additionally, our analysis unveils several other intriguing developments that unfolded in the years before.

We also address the evolving usage patterns of LNG terminals and underground storage (UGS) facilities. Notably, existing LNG terminals saw unprecedented utilization factors starting from 2022, and the continent’s regasification capacity continues its upward trajectory. Intriguing developments have also emerged in the EU’s gas storage sector, particularly concerning EU storage capacity previously held by Gazprom, displaying unusual behavior as early as 2021. As Europe transitions from dependence on Russian gas to alternative sources, primarily LNG, the task of replenishing gas storages before winter has presented a considerable challenge.

Proposing additional investigations into alternative indicators offered by the platforms, such as capacity and consumption, it is anticipated that the transparency platforms of ENTSOG and GIE will undergo further enhancements in the future, elevating its usefulness for policy makers, practitioners, and researchers alike.

Methodology

The technology behind this study shall not be discussed in detail at this point, it deserves a blog post of its own. We have developed the Python library eurogastp which facilitates downloading and processing data from the ENTSOG and GIE transparency platforms. In the case of the ENTSOG TP, the package does not only help with merely downloading the data, but also with further processing it, which makes it stand out compared to other libraries. Eventually, the data is provided in Pandas DataFrames where the data can easily be filtered, aggregated and visualized.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the support and collaboration of my colleagues Jean-François Vuillaume, Ricardo Fernández-Blanco Carramolino, Hugo Calisto, Nuria Rodríguez Gomez and Ricardo Bolado Lavin without whom this work would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Rebecca Schill who helped us with the language editing.

How to Cite

Jung, D., Vuillaume, J. F., Fernández-Blanco, R., Calisto, H., Gómez, N. R., & Lavín, R. B., The European natural gas system through the lens of data platforms. Energy Strategy Reviews, 51 (2024), 101297; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2024.101297.