Expert: The EU needs to be afraid of a cold snap not in Europe, but in China

In the short term, by chance, Europe survived without Russian gas. But the unexpected warmth did her a disservice and made her relax in anticipation of the real difficulties ahead. Therefore, when the calendar winter again, as expected, coincided with the meteorological one, European citizens and the governments of the EU countries were not particularly frightened by this, since there is enough gas in UGS facilities to successfully complete the heating season.

However, as a well-known expert warns, the Old World needs to be afraid not of a cold snap on the continent, but of a drop in temperature in China.



According to Bloomberg gas analyst Steven Stapzinski, China has just recorded its lowest ever temperature. In the city of Mohe in northern China, it fell to a record minus 53 degrees Celsius. The anomaly occurred on Sunday due to a cold snap that is expected to continue into this week. This could increase the demand for fuel for heating and generation.

Therefore, while Germany hopefully builds floating regasification terminals and prepares infrastructure, all Berlin's efforts may be in vain, since LNG is likely to go to Asia, and more precisely, to China. In this case, such an outcome is not difficult to predict, because the requirement for heating in severe frost does not depend on market conditions or covid lockdown. It is necessary to heat the premises in any case, which means that demand will grow from the largest consumer of energy resources on the planet.

As the past practice of confrontation between Europe and China has shown, usually the battle for the supply of liquefied gas has always been won by China, which can offer traders contracts for huge volumes at a higher price than in the EU. So the Europeans, who have lost their sense of danger, should prepare for difficulties in the energy sector already in the current season, and not in the future.