At the end of 2010, the total number of gas customers connected to the EU27 natural gas grid rose byapproximately 1% in comparison to 2009, to reach 115.4 million customers.

The economic downturn in Europe significantly affected the natural gas consumption in 2009, whichregistered its lowest levels since 2002. Although the natural gas markets vary significantly across Europe,in almost all EU countries, the natural gas demand between 2009 and 2010 increased by 7,2%. The gasdemand growth in the EU27 was explained by a combination of the severe weather conditions and theeconomic recovery (1.8% real GDP growth). Some general trends can be distinguished for most of the EU countries.

Due to cold weather conditions in 2010, natural gas demand increased strongly in the residential sector. An important driver of the gas sales growth was the industrial sector which registered a strong recovery in 2010 compared to 2009. This trend is illustrated by the 6.7% increase in the EU27 average productionindex for 2010, compared to 2009. Alongside the industrial sector, the power sector played a large part inthe total consumption growth. Higher electricity demand, due to the economic recovery, and switching to gasfrom other fuels, have significantly increased the volume of gas used for power generation. Indigenous gas production in the EU27 decreased by 4% to 1,904 TWh over the period, mainlybecause of ongoing decline in the mature production basins.

The largest source of gas supplied to the EU27 comes from indigenous production, making up 34% of thetotal net supplies in 2010. Main external sources of supply were Russia at 23%, Norway at 19%, Algeria at10% and Qatar at 6% which illustrated the increasing role of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the EU gassupply.

Spain continues to have the sixth-largest natural gas market in the European Union.

Within the European Union, close to 40% of natural gas consumption is channelled towards the residential-commercial market. Electricity generation (including cogeneration) consumes around a third of the total, situating the industrial market in third place with 20%.

Within the countries that comprise the OECD, the residential-commercial market’s share proves lower, as, altogether, it is less mature than the European: it receives a little more than 30% of the total natural gas. The electricity generation market tops the OECD’s list, as it consumes roughly one-third of the total natural gas. As with the European Union, the industrial market slots into third place, with a similar share of 20%.