“The crisis is not over,” warned the International Energy Agency (IEA), which called a special meeting for Wednesday with the ministers of forty countries to “study the situation in the gas markets.” Gas markets have suffered the biggest disruption since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago, with record price spikes and unprecedented pressure on global energy markets. Russia has more than halved its gas deliveries to the European Union in 2022 and the pipelines are almost closed in 2023.
Europeans have reduced their gas consumption this winter, but next winter they will be dependent on supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States and the Middle East, for which Europe competes with Asia.
The meeting, organized by videoconference, will be chaired by Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, and Ireland’s Environment Minister, Eamon Ryan, with the participation of member countries of the agency or non-members of Asia. Regions of the Pacific and the Americas. It should allow “discussing the actions to be taken to strengthen security of supply.”
Improve the balance between supply and demand
Although gas prices have fallen from the all-time highs of 2022 and storage levels have increased in the European Union, “the crisis is not over,” estimates Fatih Birol, executive director of the agency, quoted in a statement.
The meeting should make it possible to “identify measures to be taken to improve the balance between gas supply and demand” and “actions to support the short-term situation of the European gas market, in a manner consistent with the long-term countries”. long-term climate and energy transition goals.” “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered an energy crisis whose cascading effects on the global economy are still being felt by consumers and businesses,” the IEA said.
Source: BFM TV
