The European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson has called on member states to extend the voluntary gas demand reduction by 15% to next year to ensure adequate storage levels by November.
Delivering an upbeat message to mark the first anniversary of RePowerEU – the European Commission’s plan to end of dependency on Russian fossil fuel imports – she said the continent’s portfolio had grown to 23 LNG regasification terminals in one year, with eight new FSRUs under development, which will boost capacity from 178bcm to 227bcm by 2024. Total LNG imports rose 68% to 135bcm in 2022.
Europe has dramatically cut imports of Russian pipeline gas, down to around 20bcm this year.
“Russia is no longer the number one gas supplier to Europe. It is Norway,” she said. “Coal and oil imports are now banned by our strong sanctions. Even countries highly dependent on Russian gas, like Germany or landlocked Czechia, have announced that they are close to, or have completely phased-out Russian gas.”
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