Muzychenko M. Diversification of the EU natural gas market in the context of ensuring energy security

Object of study: processes of formation and development of the EU energy market. Aim: deepening the theoretical and methodological bases of research of the EU natural gas market diversification and substantiation of prospective directions of the EU energy security level increase at the expense of diversification of the natural gas market. Methods: historical and logical methods, methods of systematization and generalization, methods of structural, functional and statistical analysis, method of scientific abstraction, analysis and synthesis, methods of economic and mathematical modeling, Box complex method, system approach. Scientific novelty: conceptual and methodological approach to assessing the level of diversification of the EU natural gas market is improved; scientific and methodological tools for quantitative assessment of the level of diversification of the natural gas supply external sources are developed; the conceptual and strategic bases of research of diversification of natural gas supply external sources are deepened by means of developing the scientific and methodical approach to determining their minimum quantity; a model for diversification of the EU natural gas market is developed; a methodical approach to assessing the overall state of diversification of the natural gas market is developed which is based on determining five qualitative levels of the gas market diversification; the major ways of increasing the level of diversification of the Ukrainian natural gas market in terms of its integration into the EU natural gas market are substantiated; the conceptual and categorical apparatus of research is improved by the author's clarification of the term "energy security". The research results are implemented in practical activities of the Department of Economics and International Relations of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Department of International Cooperation of the Kharkiv City Council, branch “The Ukrainian Research Institute of Natural Gases” (UkrNDIgaz) of the JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia; in the educational process of the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Sphere of usage: interdisciplinary.