Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the MSc in Energy Law, Business, Regulation and Policy at the International Hellenic University. Europe is facing increasing competition from rapidly growing economies around the world. As its domestic production declines and its dependency on non - EU gas imports increases, the EU has started seeking new sources of energy to diversify it s energy mix. The current oversupply of LNG coupled with recent changes in the global LNG market which have moved the industry away from monopolistic structures towards competition and liquidity, made Europe to re - examine the opportunities LNG presents . The emergence of new LNG players trying to leverage the current market dynamics and optimize their portfolio, is creating demand for access to LNG import infrastructure. Under these circumstances, Europe has adopted certain strategies, so as to attract these new players to enter the European market. Within the framework of the liberalization of gas market s regulated TPA was implemented to LNG import terminals, which is an important policy tool to promote competition in the markets and facilitate the entrance of new suppliers. The EU wants to become a valuable outlet for LNG and it is in the position to achieve this, since the infrastructure is available, its regasification capacity is sufficient and its terminals are able to respond to prevailing global LNG market dynamics . However, the implementation of TPA to terminals comes along with challenges, such as infrastructural, operational and behavioural drawbacks that the EU has to overcome, in order to ultimately benefit from these new market trends.