Stinky Business : Are the Differences in the Odorization of Natural Gas Across European Countries Hampering the Progress Towards EU-Wide Gas Market?

The current article claims that the recent changes taking place in the EU gas market, and namely internal market drive and security of supply concerns, have a significant impact upon the process of natural gas odorization. The latter did not represent significant problems in previously heterogonous and scarcely interconnected national gas markets of the EU Member States, in which the gas flows were traditionally uni-directional from gas supply/transit to gas consuming countries. However, in the changing conditions of the currently developing EU gas market, discrepancies in odorization practices found between neighboring countries effectively hamper interoperability and represent an obstacle for bi-lateral flows, therefore negatively impacting the security of supply-ensuring measures, and the creation of an integrated and liquid internal market