Already fretting about energy security for the European...

Already fretting about energy security for the European winter...

Gas fears
Ukraine’s energy troubles are increasingly becoming Europe’s energy troubles as well.

Last week Russia signaled a potential new phase in its energy assault, striking two separate sites tied to Ukraine’s underground natural gas storage network.

The facilities were crucial to Europe’s energy efforts last winter, with traders stashing billions of cubic meters of fuel there in case of acute shortages. The extra storage capacity gave EU countries easy access to the supplies and allowed companies to store excess fuel they would otherwise have had nowhere to put — and which they would have been forced to sell off at a cost of up to €2 billion.

"Ukraine saved Europe's ass," said Aura Sabadus, a gas expert at commodities intelligence firm ICIS. "And the tragedy is that the gas they were storing comes from countries that are opposed to sending aid to Ukraine, most of it comes from Hungary and Slovakia. And ultimately that will backfire.

”There’s more supply uncertainty on the horizon for Europe, too. At the end of the year a transit deal allowing Russia to send pipeline gas to the EU via Ukraine is set to expire, and Kyiv is insisting the pact will not be"

The horror scenario is no Ukrainian storage facilities in December, no transit," Sabadus said. "Then what do we actually do? And even longer term, with another huge glut of liquefied natural gas coming in from the U.S. and Qatar from 2025 onwards, where are we going to put all that as a security of supply measure?"

https://www.politico.eu/article/russias-bombing-ukraine-darkness-leaving-europe-short-power/