Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS
NEW YORK, Jan 22. /TASS/. Gas prices in Europe have fallen by nearly 60 % in 2023 from their peak in 2022 and continue to decline mainly due to record gas reserves and renewable energy sources, Bloomberg reported.
Despite the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict last October and the related disruption of international supplies across the Red Sea, LNG prices in Europe continue to fall. Bloomberg attributes this phenomenon to record gas inventories, large-scale investment in renewable energy and slow economic growth, which is curbing energy demand in large industrialised countries. However, there is a risk that the downturn will end and European countries, as well as Japan, the United States and China, could face another crisis.
"Just looking at the prices, it seems the crisis is over," Bloomberg quoted Bálint Koncz, head of gas trading at MET International in Switzerland, as saying. "But we are now dependent on global factors that can change quickly."
Despite major international investment in creating LNG transit pipelines, most of the new capacity will not come online until 2025 and 2026. And the agreement for a transit route delivering gas from Russia via Ukraine to Western and Central Europe expires at the end of 2024, with no information on an extension. The closure of the transit line will reduce gas supplies. In addition, an increasing number of extreme weather events are straining energy systems and could increase demand for LNG.
TASS/gnews.cz/RoZ_07
https://tass.com/economy/1735311
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