Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol expressed confidence that European countries will face serious difficulties in the coming winter if they do not reduce the level of natural gas consumption.
Birol said in his speech at a seminar at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies: “If we do not find other sources of gas from different countries, there is only one way out – we must save on gas consumption. the level of gas consumption, and if we do not reduce gas consumption, next winter will be very difficult.”
He stressed that Europe was lucky with this winter, which turned out to be very mild.
According to him, in the past few months, “Europe continued to receive Russian gas, but much less than before. For the first time in history, China’s LNG imports have declined.”
He added: “But we are concerned about the situation that will develop next winter. Europe has been lucky this winter because it has been able to get more LNG on the market. they will come back.” China as a major importer of LNG.
According to him, American LNG has helped Europe a lot, and without it, the continent would have faced serious difficulties this winter. At the same time, Birol emphasized the need to increase the capacity of renewable energy sources.
On Jan. 30, the International Monetary Fund released an update to its report saying that it will be difficult for European countries to replenish their natural gas reserves next winter due to a severe reduction in supplies from Russia.
Source: TASS
