© Hendrik Schmidt / picture alliance via Getty Images
A thermometer above a radiator.
A thermometer above a radiator.
Europe is facing a shortage of natural gas over the next several years due to the break-up of trade with Russia, the energy minister of Qatar, a leading global exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has said.
Replacing all Russian gas with other sources doesn't seem like a viable strategy, Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday.
If "zero Russian gas" flowed in to the EU, as Brussels intends, "I think the problem is going to be huge and for a very long time," he said.
"You just don't have enough volume to bring [in] to replace that gas for the long term, unless you're saying 'I'm going to be building huge nuclear [plants], I'm going to allow coal, I'm going to burn fuel oils'," the minister explained.The EU leadership prides itself on having reduced the share of Russian gas in the bloc's mix from some 40% to just 7.5% in seven months. Brussels hopes to massively ramp up supplies of LNG and increase piped imports from Norway and Algeria to fully eliminate reliance on Russian energy.
The surge in demand from Europe is meeting some resistance from traditional markets for LNG in Asia. China has reportedly ordered its state importer not to re-export excess gas due to concerns over a possible deficit in the winter.
Kaabi warned in the interview that while European nations had accumulated enough gas in storage facilities to make it through the upcoming winter relatively unscathed, there is no certainty that this will be the case in future seasons. The energy crisis may be "much worse next year," unless Russian gas is imported, he said.
"This coming winter, because of the storage capacity being full, it's fine," the Qatari official stated. "It's really replenishing the reserves, or the storage, for next year that's going to be the issue."
Next year and the following year, even up to 2025, are going to be the issue.Commenting on the challenges that the Europeans are having in securing supplies from his nation, the minister said Doha was concerned about losing the EU market in the future because of its larger goal of moving away from fossil fuels.
Europe needs to "get off the discussion that gas is not needed for a long time," he suggested, "because everybody who's going to invest in the gas sector, they're looking at 25, 30, 40-year horizons to invest and to get reasonable returns on the investments."
QatarEnergy, the state-owned company that Kaabi also heads, prefers long-term contracts for 15-20 years in foreign trade.
The panic is all the governments, the media portrays it as some gas apocalypse for the west but are now also not able to use residential gas usage to create then business rates of pre-lockdown which allowed the government to lose our businesses, with it HAS now backfired because the usage of gas is no longer profitable for residential (even if the media projects some end of the world cataclysm caused by residential dependence not being met) ....the panic is not from revident who if lose gas lose the Kosher meter tax, have more income to offerry in food buying clothing and electrice.
Using GAS is not a requisite for life, it's a luxury the government have prevented use of through financial interference, but let's have some balance....no more residential gas debt, the whole onus falls on businesses......Big business (Jews) who need gas to con you at McDonald's and Amazon, the big businesses ARE ON THEIR OWN to mop up any free expendable income people have to buy bits of crap from China or to eat shit at McD/KFC which has to remain affordable or......oops.
Wondering where your free gas is now subsidised?
The last family in the street that can keep up payments will have the help from everyone else use of their gas and spread the cost over multiple families in winter is still an option failing that it will provoke cohesion from mutuall necessity. Only fit unvaxxed people with intelligence enough to cut all ties with government dependencies are actually thriving, but the media portrays this image that gas is somehow up there with food and water, it isn't it's always been a luxury.