BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 29. Europe will rely heavily on the LNG spot market to balance gas market in 2026-27, said Didier Holleaux, President of Eurogas, Executive Vice President Engie and Regional Coordinator of the International Gas Union (IGU), Trend reports.
Holleaux notes that in Western Europe, the race to install new regasification capacities is ongoing, and two new floating terminals have been put in operations in Germany in Wilhelmshaven and Lubmin, and a third in Brunsbüttel is undergoing commissioning.
“A number more terminals are anticipated to start up in France, Estonia, Greece, Italy and Turkey, as well as an additional two or three in Germany. This will allow Europe to import as much LNG as is available on the world spot market for the years to come and to bring this LNG as close to where the demand is as possible,” he said.
Didier Holleaux went on to add that in Eastern Europe, countries that were historically very dependent on Russian gas have reached agreements with neighbours to import LNG. Bulgaria has signed a deal to receive LNG from Turkish terminals, and several countries are assisting with alternative supply for Moldova.
“Nevertheless, new long-term supply contracts signed in 2022 and clearly dedicated to Europe amounted only to circa 15 bcma of gas, which is less than a fifth of the missing pipe gas supply from Russia, which amounted to 142 bcm in 2021. This means Europe will rely heavily on the LNG spot market to balance its gas market in 2026-27. It also means that European buyers did not trigger by themselves any new supply investment, with one US liquefaction project as the only exception,” he explained.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn