Albania will need 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas in 2015

Tirana, June 13 – The Albanian Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Trade, and Environment debated last week the draft law, “On natural liquefied gas” (LNG). The law has been prepared by a group of Albanian specialists. The Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy, Genc Ruli, declared before the committee that the draft law was going “to create a domestic market for natural gas, based on the regulatory role of the state in supply and distribution, the removal of barriers to the creation of gas trading companies, the trans-border supply of gas, and the creation of equal chances to allow free competition”.
The specialists who drafted the law stated that the draft law was based upon the best European practices. They said they used, as models, the respective laws on gas markets of Bosnia and Croatia. The law is required by the European Union to regulate the Albanian gas market and is a necessary step towards the integration of Albania into the European Union.
For the moment, the Albanian natural gas market is rather modest. Last year, Albania used some 11 million cubic meters of natural gas. The largest consumers of liquefied natural gas are the two oil refineries in Ballshi and Peqini. However, the new power plant in Vlora and the steel mills in Elbasani are going to need between 700 and 800 million cubic meters of natural gas per year. Specialists predict that by 2015, Albania may need some 1.3 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas per year.
The draft law requires the Power Regulatory Board (ERE) to supervise the supply and the distribution of natural gas. The specialists of ERE have already visited the U.S.A. to learn from the experience of their American colleagues.