The crisis is flammable: in Europe, the losses were calculated due to the war in Ukraine
It is noted that European countries have been on the threshold of the deepest crisis over the last decade, since after this winter it will be necessary to replenish gas reserves without Russia. Bloomberg journalists write that even if the EU is able to increase supply, the market situation will remain tense until 2026, when additional production capacities from the US and Qatar appear. By this time, "blue fuel" is unlikely to fall.
To combat the deficit, the European Commission has set a minimum target for inventory. Yes, at least 45%should be filled by February 1 to avoid exhaustion by the end of the heating season. If winter is soft, the goal is to leave the storage level by 55% by the end of the winter.
The problem is to find a balance between the work of factories and heating homes in the near future, without destroying the incentives for investment in renewable energy, which is widely regarded as the most stable way to get out of the energy crisis. Although in 2022 the EU managed to reduce gas demand by 50 billion cubic meters, but according to the international energy agency, the region is still faced with a potential shortage of 27 billion cubic meters in 2023.
At the same time, the demand for Chinese gas is likely to increase by 7% in 2023, according to the Institute of Economics of Energy of the Chinese National Marine Oil Corporation. Earlier, Focus reported that the Russian Gazprom reduced gas exports to far abroad this year because of sanctions imposed on the country. We will also remind that Russia is preparing to build a gas pipeline "Siberia 2" to increase the supply of natural gas to China.