Europe faces “industrial” and “political” risks from the energy crisis, the head of British energy giant Shell, which has signed a new natural gas project in Qatar, warned on Sunday. Shell has acquired a 9.375% stake in the North Field South project, which should help increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) production in the Gulf country in the coming years.
During the signing ceremony in Doha, its general director, Ben van Beurden, warned of the impact of the energy crisis, fueled by the war in Ukraine, on the European industrial sector. The old continent has cut consumption “effectively and significantly enough” to cope with the loss of 120 million tons of Russian gas a year, he said.
European economies under pressure
Europe is looking for alternatives in the short term, but the solution is not just to find new supplies, said Ben van Beurden, who will leave his post at the end of the year.
“You can say it’s inevitable and it’s kind of driving the renovation,” Ben Van Beurden continued. “But doing this on this scale, so abruptly in a period of economic challenges, will put a lot of pressure on European economies and perhaps also on the political system in Europe,” he warned.
A stake equal to that of TotalEnergies
Shell on Sunday became Qatar Energy’s second foreign partner, along with France’s TotalEnergies, chosen to develop North Field South, a project to expand the North Field field, which represents around 10% of known natural gas reserves in the world. It took a 9.375% stake, identical to that of the French group, having set the total participation of foreign companies in the project at 25%.
In July, Shell was selected as the fifth and final partner (along with TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Eni) for North Field East, a first gas field development project that extends under the sea to Iranian territory, where efforts of the Islamic Republic to exploit it are hampered by international sanctions.
Qatar is already one of the main producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world, along with the United States and Australia, and wants to increase its production by more than 60% by 2027, the start-up date of the North South Field service . Project.
Source: BFM TV
