The UK’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) closed its latest round of exploration licenses for offshore gas blocks, among which four priority areas with known reserves could start producing in 18 months. This could limit the UK’s reliance on LNG.
The share of global LNG in the European Union’s gas import mix rose to unprecedented levels in 2022 as the bloc increasingly relies on LNG to replace most of the lost Russian pipeline supplies.
Norwegian producer Equinor will invest in infrastructure upgrades to boost gas production. The firm has been trying to boost exports to Europe, its main export market, which is currently facing a severe gas shortage as it pivots away from Russian gas.
Russia’s single largest export pipeline to the EU, Nord Stream 1, will remain unavailable this winter. The pipeline’s unplanned outage was extended until April. The EU is striving to replace the lost Nord Stream 1 supplies and overall most of the lost Russian pipeline supplies with global LNG.
The risk of further cuts to Russian pipeline gas supplies to the European Union has increased since yesterday after Russia’s state-owned gas producer Gazprom warned that Russia could impose sanctions against Ukraine’s Naftogaz.
Germany is the EU’s largest consumer of Russian natural gas but the threat of weaponizing Russian supplies as we approach winter. To put the volumes at stake into perspective, this article provides a quantitative assessment of the pre-war baseline, the current status quo, as well as possible future developments. Our conclusion examines the degree to which measures that are currently being taken by Germany can counter cuts in Russian supply.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has put on ice the certification of the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline following President Putin’s decision to order troops into the Donbas region of Ukraine on “peacekeeping duties”.
