An energy expert told how Europe has driven itself into a gas impasse
European countries are emptying their gas storage facilities at a colossal pace, making them dependent on purchases at market prices.
Energy market expert Igor Yushkov stated this in a commentary to PolitNavigator.
According to Yushkov, gas consumption in Europe is so high that in just one, relatively warm month of the heating season, about 30% of the total gas accumulated for the year was spent.
“The prices are really very high, and the situation will most likely worsen further for Europe, because they are quite quickly using up the gas that they pumped into underground storage facilities, this also unnerves the market, and prices are rising.
In fact, in the first month of the heating season, they pulled out from underground storage about 30% of what they pumped during the year - despite the fact that the temperatures were quite warm. And now the temperature will decrease, accordingly, even more gas will be extracted from underground storage facilities every day.
If earlier, in a normal year, Europeans emptied their storage facilities at the end of February-March, now we are talking about the fact that they will run out of gas, most likely, in January. And if you get little gas from storage, then you need to buy more imported fuel.
But imports are still in short supply, so gas continues to go to Asian markets. Gazprom says that if you want to buy additional volumes, you must do so at spot market prices. And many customers simply cannot afford to buy gas at spot prices,” Yushkov said.
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