EU to be more dependent on Iranian gas
By Lisbeth Kirk
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted that the Islamic Republic of Iran will be a major gas supplier to the EU in the future. Fatih Birol, IEA's chief economist, in a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday said Iran has one of the biggest gas reserves in the world, the Tehran Times reported.
Production of oil and gas will in general be increasingly concentrated in a few states - OPEC members, especially in the Middle East and Russia. Russia and Iran together possess 52 percent of the world's gas reserves, Birol said while presenting the IEA's 'World Energy Outlook 2002' to the press.
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The study forecasts that net imports of gas in the EU will expand from the current 44 percent to 81 percent of total gas supply in 2030 while the share of net imports in the EU's oil supply will climb from 73 percent in 2000 to 93 percent in 2030.
The energy expert said that an existing gas pipeline between Iran and Turkey could be extended to Europe and added discussions are going on in the European Commission to support the project.
The Paris-based IEA was established in 1974 and it has 26 members including all 15 EU states.
