BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 4. European firms will make no moves to extend or sign new gas supply contracts with Russia in 2022 or beyond, in a form of self-sanctioning, resulting in a 10-15bcm drop in gas imports from Russia to Europe, equivalent to around 10% of 2021 import volumes, Adam Russel, Oil & Gas Analyst, Fitch Solutions told Trend.
“Prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Poland had already signalled that it would not extend or sign a new gas supply agreement with Gazprom, with its current 10bcm take-or-pay contract set to expire by the end of 2022, preferring instead LNG contracts with US suppliers,” he said.
As for importing more LNG, Russel noted that Fitch Solutions sees scope for a 30bcm increase in LNG imports in Europe in 2022, from 80bcm in 2021 to 110bcm in 2022.
“LNG import capacity in Europe is significant at approximately 157bcm a year, which is enough to meet nearly 40% of total demand, but only around half of its capacity was utilised in 2021 at 80bcm, leaving 77bcm of available import capacity. We note that there are constraints on the size of the LNG spot market for Europe to import much more than 30bcm in 2022,” the analyst added.
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