Europe has taken a surprising turn in preparation for the continent’s much-discussed crisis imminentenergy crisis. The European Union now has more liquefied natural gas than it needs, according to reports Bloomberg and the New York Times.
Ports would be backed up, with tankers waiting to offload gas supplies to countries already full of fuel, the NYT said.. EU gas storage reached an overall capacity of 93.6%, with storage in Germany 97.5% full, according to Bloomberg. And natural gas prices fell to their lowest level since June, according the Financial Times, and are currently at levels less than a third of what they were at the August record high.
The U-turn follows months of aggressive global gas imports by Europe in response to Russian fuel cuts. An autumnal heat wave, which led to a dropthat-usual energy demand, is also partly responsible for gas recovery in Europe. The hottest the time is plan to continue through the winter.
Normally, the EU depends on natural gas for somewhere between a fifth and a third of his energy. And in 2020, more than 40% of this gas was imported from Russia, according to Eurostat.
But this year, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has put a strain on the EU’s energy supply. Amid the conflict and the Russian threat of reduced shipping, the bloc of nations are committed to reducing their consumption of Russian fuel in March. Russia responded by double in summer and further reduce its gas exports from the EU.
Then the Nord Stream pipelines failed, releasing a record amount of methane which warms the planet and stops the primary flow of liquefied natural gas (LNG) of Russia to Germany entirely. The pipeline is leaking are widely suspected be the result of intentional sabotage, and several European surveys determined explosions were placed near the pipe. Europe blamed Russia, Russia denied these allegations and in turn blamed “the West”.
Instead of its standard supply, Europe filled some of its energy needs with renewable energies but also turned back to coal. And the EU looked further to import liquefied natural gas. Prices have soared, attracting gas exporters to the bloc – the United States, Qatar and other countries (Russia included) have all sent large ship shipments, according to the NYT.
Coupled with warm weather, the EU’s aggressive storage strategy appears to have worked, for now, in warding off the threat of energy shortages. However, near capacity now does not guarantee enough supply later. Even Germany’s very full storage is only enough to meet demand for about two winter months, according to Bloomberg. “The test will come when we get the first cold snap and storage starts to empty,” Jonathan Stern, founder of the gas program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told the NYT.
Several outlets have reported that Europe will need to continue bringing natural gas through the winter to guard against things like dangerous outages in cold weather. And the recent drop in LNG costs in the EU could make this a challenge.. Certainly, as the NYT pointed out, the current price of natural gas is still “historically high”, so that the European Commission is consider imposing a ceiling price.
Either way, the continued instability of fossil fuels in Europe stresses the need for a switch to renewable energy. On the obvious downsides of climate change to burning gas and oil, LNG is not a reliable source of energy in a world full of conflict. The EU has not been able to achieve energy independence from fossil fuels, but a diversified and sustainable energy network could guarantee cheap and reliable domestic electricity.
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