IEA chief accuses Russia of worsening Europe’s gas crisis
Fatih Birol says low flows of key fuel coincide with ‘heightened geopolitical tensions over Ukraine’
The head of the International Energy Agency has accused Russia of throttling gas supplies to Europe at a time “of heightened geopolitical tensions” implying Moscow has manufactured an energy crisis for political ends.
Fatih Birol said on Wednesday that the IEA, which represents many big fossil fuel consuming countries, believed Russia was holding back at least a third of the gas it could feasibly send to Europe, while draining Russian-controlled storage facilities on the continent to bolster the impression of tight supplies.
“We believe there are strong elements of tightness in the European gas market due to Russia’s behaviour,” Birol said. “I would note that today’s low Russian gas flows to Europe coincide with heightened geopolitical tensions over Ukraine.”
Birol added, “Russia could increase deliveries to Europe by at least one-third — this is the key message.”
The comments from Birol are his most pointed towards Russia’s role in the energy crisis yet and comes as households in the UK and Europe are bracing for steep increases in their bills after wholesale gas and electricity prices soared to record levels.
Russia has long insisted that it has fulfilled all of its long-term gas supply contracts to Europe but has been accused by policymakers and analysts of holding back supplies since last year by restricting spot sales that were once readily available.
Gazprom, Russia’s state-backed gas company, wants to win approval for the start-up of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, which is designed as an alternative to transit routes through Ukraine.
Russia has stationed around 100,000 troops close to the Ukrainian border as Moscow holds talks with the US over European security. There is expected to be a vote in the US Senate this week on proposed legislation to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
Birol said European countries including the UK needed to prepare for future crises by securing additional gas storage to help loosen any country’s influence over the market at times of stress.
He singled out Gazprom’s role in reducing the volume of gas in storage at facilities it controls within the EU.
“In terms of the storage the current storage deficit in the EU is largely due to Gazprom,” Birol said, pointing out total storage is at about 50 per cent of capacity compared to 70 per cent normally in January.
“The low levels of storage in the company’s EU-based facilities account for half of the EU deficit even though Gazprom storage only accounts for 10 per cent of the EU’s total storage capacity,” he added.
Wasn’t it Europe who put sanctions vs Russia and has been blocking various economical projects starting from the EaEU? Hm, what a strange coincidence, why they’re doing it in time of ‘heightened geopolitical tensions’ 🤔
So what if they’re doing it?
They’re the ones producing it, they can do whatever they want with it.
It’s up to the other countries to find a way not to be reliant on Russian gas. If they don’t want to, it’s actually their problem.
Soon we’ll have Germans comment here how Russia is the bestest, most reliable and trustworthy partner ever and claiming they abuse European reliance on them is American or Eastern European propaganda, or that Russia needs European money so they would never do anything like that. Anything to not admit Germany has bet on the wrong horse, again, and dragged the entire continent into a clusterfuck of energy crisis.
Is this a problem? I thought the us was willing to send hundreds of lng ships a day to europe to meet its energy needs.
Have redditors lied to me?
Long term this crisis is good for Europe. Nobody will question the divestment from fossil fuels anymore after Russia proved that gas supply is not reliable.
have to be pushed forward to replace fossil gas in the industry and gas heatings have to be replaced with electrical heat pumps. Europe should focus on investing in this.
USA could offer LNG with 50% discount.why not?
So supplier is guilty for doing what he is obliged by contracts? How about we blame those who signed them on behest of consumer?
Googled that agency. Theres nothing international about it.
8 comments
Full article:
IEA chief accuses Russia of worsening Europe’s gas crisis
Fatih Birol says low flows of key fuel coincide with ‘heightened geopolitical tensions over Ukraine’
The head of the International Energy Agency has accused Russia of throttling gas supplies to Europe at a time “of heightened geopolitical tensions” implying Moscow has manufactured an energy crisis for political ends.
Fatih Birol said on Wednesday that the IEA, which represents many big fossil fuel consuming countries, believed Russia was holding back at least a third of the gas it could feasibly send to Europe, while draining Russian-controlled storage facilities on the continent to bolster the impression of tight supplies.
“We believe there are strong elements of tightness in the European gas market due to Russia’s behaviour,” Birol said. “I would note that today’s low Russian gas flows to Europe coincide with heightened geopolitical tensions over Ukraine.”
Birol added, “Russia could increase deliveries to Europe by at least one-third — this is the key message.”
The comments from Birol are his most pointed towards Russia’s role in the energy crisis yet and comes as households in the UK and Europe are bracing for steep increases in their bills after wholesale gas and electricity prices soared to record levels.
Russia has long insisted that it has fulfilled all of its long-term gas supply contracts to Europe but has been accused by policymakers and analysts of holding back supplies since last year by restricting spot sales that were once readily available.
Gazprom, Russia’s state-backed gas company, wants to win approval for the start-up of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, which is designed as an alternative to transit routes through Ukraine.
Russia has stationed around 100,000 troops close to the Ukrainian border as Moscow holds talks with the US over European security. There is expected to be a vote in the US Senate this week on proposed legislation to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
Birol said European countries including the UK needed to prepare for future crises by securing additional gas storage to help loosen any country’s influence over the market at times of stress.
He singled out Gazprom’s role in reducing the volume of gas in storage at facilities it controls within the EU.
“In terms of the storage the current storage deficit in the EU is largely due to Gazprom,” Birol said, pointing out total storage is at about 50 per cent of capacity compared to 70 per cent normally in January.
“The low levels of storage in the company’s EU-based facilities account for half of the EU deficit even though Gazprom storage only accounts for 10 per cent of the EU’s total storage capacity,” he added.
Wasn’t it Europe who put sanctions vs Russia and has been blocking various economical projects starting from the EaEU? Hm, what a strange coincidence, why they’re doing it in time of ‘heightened geopolitical tensions’ 🤔
So what if they’re doing it?
They’re the ones producing it, they can do whatever they want with it.
It’s up to the other countries to find a way not to be reliant on Russian gas. If they don’t want to, it’s actually their problem.
Soon we’ll have Germans comment here how Russia is the bestest, most reliable and trustworthy partner ever and claiming they abuse European reliance on them is American or Eastern European propaganda, or that Russia needs European money so they would never do anything like that. Anything to not admit Germany has bet on the wrong horse, again, and dragged the entire continent into a clusterfuck of energy crisis.
Is this a problem? I thought the us was willing to send hundreds of lng ships a day to europe to meet its energy needs.
Have redditors lied to me?
Long term this crisis is good for Europe. Nobody will question the divestment from fossil fuels anymore after Russia proved that gas supply is not reliable.
Projects like these:
* [https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/07/sweden-pushes-for-real-green-steel/](https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/07/sweden-pushes-for-real-green-steel/)
* [https://salcos.salzgitter-ag.com/en/index.html](https://salcos.salzgitter-ag.com/en/index.html)
* [https://refhyne.eu/shell-starts-up-europes-largest-pem-green-hydrogen-electrolyser/](https://refhyne.eu/shell-starts-up-europes-largest-pem-green-hydrogen-electrolyser/)
have to be pushed forward to replace fossil gas in the industry and gas heatings have to be replaced with electrical heat pumps. Europe should focus on investing in this.
USA could offer LNG with 50% discount.why not?
So supplier is guilty for doing what he is obliged by contracts? How about we blame those who signed them on behest of consumer?
Googled that agency. Theres nothing international about it.