ST. PETERSBURG, October 6. /TASS/. The trend of declining demand for gas in Europe will continue till 2020 and then will subside, Head of the State Duma energy committee Pavel Zavalny said at a gas forum in Tuesday.

"The European market is still facing the trend of declining demand for gas for obvious reasons — weak economic growth, active energy preservation, substitution of gas generation for coal, subsidizing of alternative fuel types. Experts say those factors will be effective at least till 2020 and then demand for gas will go up in Europe amid sharp fall of its own output and growth of consumption," Zavalny said.

He added that the European Union will put all efforts to diversify sources of supplies.