Europe’s Natural Gas Woes Increase; Russia Dependency Hits Prices

Replacing Russian natural gas supplies to Europe would be “almost impossible” in the short term according to Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi.

“Russia (provides) I think 30-40% of the supply to Europe. There is no single country that can replace that kind of volume, there isn’t the capacity to do that from LNG,” al-Kaabi said at a gas conference in Doha on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.

Europe has become the prime market for US liquefied natural since December as the Ukraine crisis put Russian supplies in doubt with approximately two-thirds of US liquefied natural gas shipments destined for Europe last week.

Reuters has reported that currently Europe is running out of processing capacity for the liquefied natural gas, meaning that shipments from the US will likely decline.

European gas prices have risen by more than 20% since Monday’s escalation in tensions between Russia and Ukraine.