The dependence on Russian gas in Europe should be offset by the creation of an insurance market to ensure that natural gas will be delivered also in a crisis situation, says a report by Bruegel center, writes Bloomberg.

Until we can find new sources and supply routes, “we propose a new approach. The only thing to do is to commit importers and domestic producers to have a degree of flexibility, in other words some spare capacity. They will not need to use physically this capability, but they will be required to have an emergency agreement to be able to provide additional gas”, explains one of the analysts.

The proposal targets the use of a variety of instruments: option-type contracts, fuel replacement, internal production spare capacity or swap contracts with suppliers in other countries. Moreover, the proposal is based on the excess capacity of the existing EU import pipelines, which are now filled only 58%, and on terminals of liquefied natural gas which would use, on average, about a third of their capacity, writes Agerpres.

“There are a number of uncertainties in the energy market and a European insurance system would be the best solution at the cheapest possible price. Russia is not the only potential problem. Neighboring regions are very volatile. Forecasts for Norway’s gas production after 2020 are declining while EU imports could grow in the coming decades”, said one of the experts involved in the study.