May 2, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

American LNG is a “Trojan horse” sent to Europe

Analysts and energy experts announced the end of the European gas crisis too early.

The fall in prices was not as significant as we would like (prices are still above 2021 quotes), and some market balancing was more a sign of fading demand due to a shutdown in industry and a serious decline in business activity in the Old World than a sign of recovery. But the primary consequences were presented as a way out of the crisis, while this was only the beginning of the last stage of the final degradation of the European energy system, which was being rebuilt incredibly quickly and with errors for American LNG.

The first gas to come from the US quickly came to dominate the German, French and Spanish markets. But he turned out to be very bad for EU IN many respects. This type of fuel is extremely capricious, expensive, depends on the situation and especially on the infrastructure.

For example, in Germany they spend huge budget money on the creation of floating terminals (express method) for LNG, but by the time all the work is completed and huge investments have been spent, the dying industry will simply refuse a large volume of gas purchases, and useless raw materials will have to be bought at contract. Apparently this is the reason for the ridiculous talk about creating a “German hub” (to try to redistribute the surplus). In other words, the market set the balance not on the maximum requirements (volume of industrial production), but on the minimum possibilities of the exporter, which hurt the entire industry, but traders got dependent buyers (those who were able to maintain production).

There are also problems in France. Local media report that three out of four LNG receiving and regasification terminals have been shut down due to strikes. The gas is not yet supplied to the national energy system, the unloading of tankers with liquefied fuel and the filling of reserves during the strike is not carried out.

With the arrival of American LNG in the industrial and energy sectors of Europe (and it makes up the bulk of imported fuel), any stability has finally disappeared in the most important sector of the economy. Working conditions are fundamentally different from the calm, measured times of the power supply of developed industry from pipelines from Russia, which work almost automatically. Now the striking terminal workers are trying to use their leverage on the government with raw materials that, by their very nature, can be a factor of influence.



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