Europe's Rise in Natural Gas Demand Means More LNG

[thackney]

Europe's Rise in Natural Gas Demand Means More LNG
http://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2016/06/19/europes-rise-in-natural-gas-demand-means-more-lng/#5e44f2c76e5d
Jun 19, 2016

...Europe uses 47-50 Bcf/day of gas, and imports almost half of that. Europe’s is the world’s biggest gas importer, and future demand is a really big deal because emerging U.S. LNG export potential could target Europe than more distant Asia. Gas prices have essentially converged all over (here), reducing arbitrage opportunities and explaining “Spain to receive 15 LNG cargoes in July, reload none.”

Gas demand in Europe was up 4-5% in 2015. Unwisely, some are using the recent decline in gas demand in Europe to insist that more efficiency and more renewables simply mean that Europe doesn’t need more gas infrastructure, like pipelines, inter-connectors, and LNG infrastructure, all especially vital to moving imported LNG into Spain/Portugal eastward to lower Russian dependence.



But, we know the truth: the International Energy Agency reports that Europe needs to invest $40 billion in natural gas supply each year. With the worst gas security rankings in the world (here), the European Commission knows the importance of more gas infrastructure: “Liquefied Natural Gas and gas storage will boost European Union’s energy security.”

The fact is that Russia will continue to thrive as Europe continues to enact unrealistic energy policies that ignore the physical, economical, and technical realities and limitations of renewables. Despite a concerted effort to reduce it, Europe’s reliance on Russia has “significantly increased,” although the dependence on Ukraine as a transit country has fallen (here)....

Lots of links and other info at the source.  #energy

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The fact is that Russia will continue to thrive as Europe continues to enact unrealistic energy policies that ignore the physical, economical, and technical realities and limitations of renewables.

@thackney - can you translate this?  Seems that the author is suggesting that Europe needs to rely more on LNG in its energy policies instead of renewables to offset Russian influence.

Is this your take?

If so, I wonder if the author realizes the source of this LNG is very likely to be ME/NA OPEC countries that might be a bigger threat to its stability than Russian gas?

[thackney]

@thackney - can you translate this?  Seems that the author is suggesting that Europe needs to rely more on LNG in its energy policies instead of renewables to offset Russian influence.

Is this your take?

If so, I wonder if the author realizes the source of this LNG is very likely to be ME/NA OPEC countries that might be a bigger threat to its stability than Russian gas?

Shutting down coal and nukes puts them very dependent on Natural Gas, regardless of the desires for wind/solar/etc.

LNG terminals take a lot of time, at both the demand and the supply end to get built.  They are very significant bottlenecks compared to the pipelines already in place from Russia.