The chairman of Engie is calmly considering the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe next winter despite the absence of Russian gas on which the continent was dependent before the invasion of Ukraine, he said in an interview with La Tribune Tuesday.
“At this stage, we are confident that we will get through the next winter without major difficulties. We will have to achieve the energy savings of the previous winter and pay close attention to access to LNG,” Jean-Pierre Clamadieu told the business newspaper.
After the cessation of Russian gas supply to Western Europe by pipeline, it has “managed to pass the winter (…) largely thanks to the reduction in energy consumption, which has been remarkable: 13% for gas, excluding climate effect during the winter 2022/2023,” said the president of the French energy company. “For the moment, the indicators are green. On average, between 150 and 160 LNG ships are landing in Europe each month, compared to 40 before the crisis,” noted Mr. Clamadieu. “We have also maximized import capacity via pipeline from outside Russia, especially from Norway, which has become Europe’s leading gas supplier.
Today, we are at just over 50% of the European storage levels, which is unprecedented. In France, we are around 35%. We are not at all under tension,” reassured the leader. At the beginning of April, the United States and the European Union indicated that they wanted to maintain “a high level” of LNG deliveries to the Europeans in 2023, whose doubling in 2022 helped the EU-27 to reduce their dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
The United States exported in 2022 some 56 billion cubic meters of LNG to the EU, compared to 22 billion in 2021, a jump of 140%. At the time, Brussels indicated that European gas reserves were 56% full, in line with its forecast of around 50% expected by the end of the winter, and at a level almost twice as high as that usually observed at this time of year. The EU-27 have set a target of filling their reserves to 90% by November.
