European countries cannot replace Russian natural gas without an energy transition, according to Shell CEO Ben van Beurden. Increasing gas supplies from Africa and Scandinavia as well as boosting purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) cannot help in replacing Russian energy in the European markets, van Beurden said.
“Bringing more LNG to the market, increasing liquefaction and regasification capacity, and raising pipeline supplies from northern Africa and Norway are reasonable things,” the Shell CEO said adding that “it is also inevitable to have an energy transition in the medium term.”
“There is no way to simply buy more pipeline gas and LNG to completely replace all the Russian gas that we currently consume. This is not feasible,” the Shell CEO said.
Russia is currently the largest European gas provider, delivering about 40% of natural gas consumed by the region. Russian gas is transferred by several routes, including Nord Stream, running directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, Ukraine’s gas transmission system, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, and the Turkish Stream pipeline through the Black Sea.
Shell CEO is right, shows Germany
Meanwhile, the eastern part of Germany is staring at petrol shortages in the near future if the EU ratifies an embargo on Russian oil, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck warned in a TV interview.
The EU nations are preparing to vote on a proposal which would see Russian crude phased out within six months and refined products by the end of the year. The measures are part of the latest Ukraine-related sanctions against Moscow.
“It cannot be ruled out, unfortunately, I have to say, that there will actually be shortages,” Habeck told broadcaster RTL.
“There may be a short period of low oil and therefore low fuel availability,” Habeck continued, assuring however that the government was working to ensure that didn’t happen.
The eastern part of Germany is supplied by the Schwedt refinery, which runs wholly on Russian imports. It’s one of the largest crude oil processing facilities in Germany and provides 90% of the gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil used in Berlin and the state of Brandenburg. If the embargo is approved, the refinery may have to shut down, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Monday.
Germany has reduced its proportion of oil imports from Russia to 12% from 35% since Russia’s military operations in Ukraine began in late February, in line with the EU’s push to wean itself off Russian energy supplies.
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