Sweden eyes natural gas in short term after switch from nuclear

London (Platts)--5Oct2004

Sweden will turn to natural gas as a short term solution for power generation
as it decommissions its nuclear power generators, Sweden's ministry for trade
and industry said Monday. 

"During a change-over period, the use of natural gas must be allowed to increase in a balanced manner. Especially important is it
to use the possibilities of natural gas in effective power production in
combined heat and power units," the ministry said, following its announcement
that talks with the nuclear industry about the decommissioning process had
broken down. The government's desire is that Sweden will base all its energy
consumption on renewable energy in the long term. "But it is not realistic to
expand hydro, wind and bio energy in such a short time that it can replace
nuclear while we at the same time reduce the use of coal and oil," it said.
Sweden's natural gas consumption was around 10TWh in 2003. The country's high
pressure gas network is restricted to the southwestern part of the country.

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