Some 30 billion cubic meters of gas could well be missing next year, in the event of a complete stoppage of deliveries from Russia.
Europe risks running out of gas during the winter of 2023-2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Thursday, calling on governments to “act immediately» in particular to reduce demand. Some 30 billion cubic meters of gas could well be missing next year, in the event of a complete cessation of deliveries from Russia but also because of China’s economic rebound, estimates the IEA, an agency created by the OECD. in 1974 to advise governments on their energy policy.
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European reserves would then only be 65% full at the start of winter 2023-2024, compared to 95% today, its director Fatih Birol told a few journalists during an online press conference. “The cushion provided by current reserve levels, together with the recent decline in gas prices and unusually warm temperatures, should not lead to overly optimistic conclusions about the future.“, warns the IEA in this analysis, which underlines that in the summer of 2023 the global geopolitical and economic conditions for obtaining supplies and filling the reserves should have changed considerably compared to 2022.
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