As Russia tightens natural gas supplies, Europe is looking everywhere for energy to keep its economy running to Europe’s New Energy Sources. Coal-fired power plants are coming back to life. Billions are being spent on terminals to bring in liquefied natural gas, much of it from Texas shale fields. Officials and heads of state fly to Qatar, Azerbaijan, Norway and Algeria to seal energy deals.
Concerns are growing across Europe that disruptions to Russian gas supplies will force governments to ration fuel. And businesses close factories moves that could put thousands of jobs at risk.
The hunt for fuel has met with considerable success so far. But as prices continue to rise and the Russian threat shows no signs of abating, room for error is thin.
“There is great and legitimate concern about this winter,” said Michael Stoppard. So, vice president of global gas strategy at research firm S&P Global.
Europe’s New Energy Sources for eliminating Russia
Five months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europe is in the grip of an accelerated. And increasingly irreversible transition in the way it obtains energy to heat and cool homes, run businesses and generate electricity. The long-term transition to more renewable energy sources has been overtaken. By the short-term scramble to see out the coming winter.
The amount of natural gas coming from Russia, once Europe’s biggest fuel source, is less than a third of what it was a year ago. This week, Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, throttled already severely reduced flows in a key gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, sending European gas futures to record highs.
Within a day of Gazprom’s announcement, the European Union called for a 15 percent cut in gas consumption across the bloc.
So, this shift away from Russian natural gas – almost unthinkable after a decades-long embrace of Siberian gas delivered by pipelines stretching thousands of kilometres – is sending shock waves through factories and forcing governments to look for alternative energy sources.
So, Multilateral efforts to identify alternatives to Russian gas have largely compensated for this shortfall. According to Jack Sharples, an expert at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, despite Gazprom’s cuts, natural gas supplies in Europe in the first half of 2022 were roughly the same as in the same period last year.
The LNG problem
The standout performer of this comeback was liquefied natural gas, cooled into a condensed liquid form and transported by ship. LNG essentially traded places for gas from Russia as Europe’s main fuel source. About half of the supplies come from the United States, which this year became the world’s largest exporter of fuel.
Looking to the end of the year, European countries are pushing energy companies to fill salt caverns. And other storage facilities with gas to provide a safety margin in case Russia shuts down pipelines.
So, European gas storage facilities have now built around 67 % of total capacity. Up more than 10 percentage points from a year ago. These levels provide some comfort that European countries could reach something close to the European Union’s target of 80 % capacity before winter.
But concerns continue to grow and there are many reasons why Europe’s efforts could fail as colder weather approaches.
Russia is well aware of the European Union’s campaign to store enough gas to fend off disruptions this winter. And wants to prevent that, analysts say, by causing pipeline flows to shrink. And all sorts of weather problems — an exceptionally cold winter, a North Sea storm knocking out Norwegian gas production, or a busy Atlantic hurricane season delaying L.N.G. tankers – could put Europe into energy shortages.
Read more: Gas prices hit a record high on Tuesday, surpassing records set in March
Europe’s New Energy Sources
“So, We are approaching the danger zone,” said Massimo Di Odoardo, vice president of gas at research institution Wood Mackenzie.
Reflecting these concerns, European gas futures prices have doubled over the past two months. Also, to around 200 euros per megawatt hour on the Dutch exchange TTF, around 10 times higher than a year ago.
Astronomical energy costs in Europe are putting a number of industries on the defensive. And forcing changes that can help meet the European Union’s voluntary 15% gas savings target. The International Energy Agency recently predicted that gas demand in the region would fall by 9 percent this year. Data are from Ben Carlson. Also, many more blogs are there on investments here.