'Worst yet to come' for Europe energy shortages: Qatar minister

France 24 ^

[FarCenter]

Doha (AFP) – Qatar's energy minister warned on Tuesday the "worst is yet to come" for Europe's oil and gas shortages, saying a warm winter had prevented greater difficulties in recent months.

Saad al-Kaabi and his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said a lack of investment in oil and gas, as the world tries to transition to cleaner fuels to prevent global warming, risked causing an energy crunch.

"The only thing that saved humanity and Europe this year was a warm winter, and the slowdown in the economy," Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi told the Qatar Economic Forum.

"If the economy starts churning back up in (2024) and you have just a regular winter, I think the worst is yet to come."

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy supply crisis, Europe dodged serious problems this past winter largely because of milder-than-expected temperatures.

But Kaabi and Prince Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, both told the conference further problems were looming.

[FLT-bird]

Its undeniably true. There simply is no practical replacement for fossil fuels at this point. The only one that looks remotely practical as a solution to replace even part of the demand for fossil fuels - reliably and at a cost countries can actually afford to pay - is nuclear.

So naturally, the Gaia Worshipers are against nuclear too.

[mewzilla]

The US is continuing to EXPORT record amounts of our energy.

Where in Hades is it all going?!

[BobL]

“After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked an energy supply crisis”

Actually, it was Europe’s feeble attempt to ‘punish’ Russia for liberating Ukraine, combined with our blowing up of their pipeline, that created the crisis.

[mewzilla]

Well, lookee here. From March...

US has replaced Russia as Europe’s top crude oil supplier

From last month...

US pledges to keep pumping natural gas to Europe Liquefied natural gas from the US helped the EU survive last winter, and more is promised for this year.

From January, note the bit on coal...

Germany, EU remain heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels

[Tom Tetroxide]

James Darren - The Best Is Yet To Come
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ1MI1zPJvY&ab_channel=itoh138

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

Recall Blinken called this an “opportunity.” Right out of the mafia play book....

[Erik Latranyi]

Convenient....blow up Nordstream 1 & 2, then replace the gas with US produced product.

[woodbutcher1963]

That is exactly what happened. However, the trickle down effect made electric rates in parts of New England double in price.
This is because electric utilities up in MA/NH became dependent on cheap natural gas coming into northeast ports in liquid natural gas form. This is because proposed pipelines from PA were all defeated.

So, when the LNG sellers had the option to ship it across the Atlantic and sell it for 5X higher than they were selling it to other domestic ports the gas went there. Plus shipping LNG from TX/LA to MA has to be done on US ships according to the Jones Act. This also makes it more expensive to ship within the USA.

Eversource, the largest electric utility in New England, raised their KHW rate in NH from $.11 to $.22 in August of 2022. So, we got that goin for us.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "Recall Blinken called this an 'opportunity.' Right out of the mafia play book...."

Kudos. An excellent observation.