Europe needs to increase its nuclear power capacity substantially to relieve its overdependence on gas, the chief executive of Edison, Umberto Quadrino has warned, The Financial Times reports Friday.
It quoted Quadrino, head of Italy
's second-largest utility, as saying: "If you look at the supply of gas to Europe
over the next 15 years, we have to be scared."
Quadrino said Europe
would need to double its gas imports between now and 2020 as its own production, principally in northern Europe
, tailed off and demand escalated.
Gas imports - 45% of the 560 billion cubic meters of gas needed a year - would need to expand to 500 billion cubic meters on their own or 70% of projected European demand in 2020, the FT noted.
The extra supplies of gas had to come, Quadrino said from "troublesome countries" such as Iran, Iraq
and Turkmenistan.