IEA urges EU to prepare for major gas crunch in winter

APD NEWS

text

Diversifying gas suppliers is not enough to ensure Europe gets through the winter without Russian gas, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Monday, urging Europe to take more coordinated actions immediately, including cutting demand.

"Europe is now forced to operate in a constant state of uncertainty over Russian gas supplies, and we can't rule out a complete cut-off," said Fatih Birol, the head of the IEA, in an article published on the organization's website.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the EU signed a deal with Azerbaijan to import at least 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually by 2027, as Europe looks to reduce gas imports from Russia.

Birol acknowledged in the article that there had been some progress in diversifying gas supplies. Still, it was not enough, as new supplies were simply unavailable in the volumes required to substitute for missing deliveries from Russia.

He proposed five concrete actions for Europe to prepare for the coming winter. His suggestions included introducing auction platforms to incentivize EU industrial gas users to reduce demand, minimizing gas use in the power sector, enhancing coordination among gas and electricity operators across Europe, bringing down household electricity demand and harmonizing emergency planning.

Russian gas delivery through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was suspended on July 11 for annual maintenance and is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

However, Russia's Gazprom told European customers it couldn't guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary" circumstances, Reuters reported on Monday, quoting a letter from the state gas giant dated July 14.

The letter added to fears in Europe that Russia may not restart the pipeline as scheduled in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia over its conflict with Ukraine, the report said.

(CGTN)