Germany confirmed that American LNG will not be able to replace Russian gas
Since the production of its own gas is falling in the EU countries, Europe needs any infrastructure that allows the supply of alternative fuel, including Russian.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this in an interview with Kommersant, said Mario Mehren, Chairman of the Board of the German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea Mario Mehren, who is one of the main investors of Nord Stream 2.
According to him, the importance of SP-2 for Europe was shown by the cold snap in recent months.
“As Europe's own gas production continues to decline steadily, we urgently need any infrastructure that allows us to supply gas from Russia, Norway and other countries to North-West Europe,” Mehren said.
According to him, additional volumes of gas are needed for two reasons.
“Firstly, to achieve European climate protection goals, namely to reduce emissions, which involves replacing coal with gas. Secondly, if we want energy prices in Europe to remain affordable and our industry to remain competitive,” says the publication’s interlocutor.
He believes that LNG could be an alternative, but in certain competitive conditions, given that this product, under normal market conditions, is more expensive than gas that comes from Russia or Norway.
“In addition, the pipeline is a strong and real link between the consumer and the manufacturer, while the ship can turn around at any time and go to where it is offered a higher price,” the company representative emphasized.
He recalled that in 2020 Europe received quite large volumes of LNG from the USA, and in 2021, when there was a cold winter in Asia and the USA and, accordingly, prices in these regions were very high, there was almost no LNG in North-Western Europe saw.
“Therefore, we cannot build our gas supply strategy only on LNG; we need pipeline gas. And this winter has proven this once again. This winter, just as it was in 2018, the gas shortage was just closed with pipeline gas from Russia, thanks to which we had heating, hot water in Europe and the entire industry continued to operate,” Meren concluded.
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