...

European energy market may have very difficult days to come – IEA

Oil&Gas Materials 8 June 2022 14:17 (UTC +04:00)
European energy market may have very difficult days to come – IEA
Laman Zeynalova
Laman Zeynalova
Read more

BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 8. European energy market may have very difficult days to come, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said at IEA’s 7th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency, Trend reports.

“We’re seeing very difficult times around the world, prices are at unacceptable levels. In Europe, the main customer of Russia, we may have very difficult days to come. I am especially worried about the natural gas markets this winter. If we have a harsh and long winter, we may see very difficult days. It is a reason we came up with a 10-point plan what can we do in a hurry to reduce the gas demand. We made some practical suggestions to governments and many of them are related to energy efficiency and change in the behavior. One of them is about thermostat. We have calculated that if European consumers reduce their temperature at home by only 2 degree Celsius, the amount of natural gas we could save is about 20 billion cubic meters, which is equal to the natural gas coming from Russia to Europe through Nord Stream 1, major artery of pipeline,” he explained.

Birol also expressed concern about oil markets, especially this summer many oil products around the world may well be seeing a tightness.

“Why I said summer, because in the driving season demand goes up, especially for diesel, gasoline and may be jet fuel. Here we have also very practical suggestions: just reducing speed limits in advanced economies by 10 kilometers per hour would mean saving about half a million barrels of oil per day, which is equal to what OPEC+ countries set. They are going to increase their production which I welcome. But again, we can reduce the speed limit by 10 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to OPEC+ countries’ production increase promises. There are things that in our hands and these are some immediate responses to the crisis. But there can be some structural ones. If countries perform the best practices for cars, trucks, home appliances, if they just have the right efficiency policies with existing, in the next 7 years the world will save energy equal to entire energy consumption of China. I don’t know any other solution like energy efficiency that can simultaneously address our economic crisis, energy crisis and climate crisis. This is reason why at the IEA we say that energy efficiency is the first fuel,” he added.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

Tags:
Latest

Latest