PROSPECTS FOR GAS INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT IN COUNTRIES OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Over recent years, South-Eastern Europe has become the main area for competition between gas producers for the promising European market. In the mid-term perspective, the southeast direction may become the second largest (after traditional routes from the Russian Federation) or the main channel of natural gas supplies to the EU territory. The region is actively involved in the creation of a new energy supply infrastructure from various sources. This article is aimed to consider the most important and worth mentioning gas projects in the region, to study the prospects for their implementation, as well as to analyze the sources of the southeast vector of EU gas imports. The article states that South-Eastern Europe will be one of the main "points of entering" natural gas to the EU market, with a sufficient resource base in the mid-term perspective.