Gas shipments cannot save Europe from the folly of its pact with Putin - by Jeremy Warner

There is another war going on, parallel to the military conflict in the Ukraine involving energy which will affect us all, according to Jeremy Warner in a special report in today’s Telegraph.

Europe’s reliance on Russia’s liquified natural gas (LNG) over many years has left it dangerously exposed and it will take years and a fundamental policy re-think to make good the short-fall. In the meantime of course

"Putin has got Europe by the proverbial. With the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to see what he has been up to. From about February last year, Russia began to slowly starve the European market of supply, with the result that storage capacity exhausted by winter demand was not replenished as usual over the summer months."

And Russia will continue to apply the pressure while it can:

"By way of a warning shot across Europe’s bows, Russia last Friday cut flows through the Yamal Europe pipeline close to zero. Supplies have since resumed, but it gives a taste of what Putin’s strategy is likely to be as he grinds down the Ukrainian opposition to his land grab.

Russia’s array of different pipelines gives the Kremlin the ability to pick countries off one by one and punish them individually, according to their backing for Western sanctions and support for the Ukrainian resistance. He won’t be playing ball in European plans to rebuild the Continent’s reserves over the coming summer."

Admitting we got it wrong is at least a step in the right direction.

“So two cheers for Mark Rutte for ’fessing up in his joint press conference with Boris Johnson this week to having been fooled by Putin. Sadly, we’ll be paying the cost for a generation or more.”

The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it:

Article for the Telegraph by Jeremy Warner - Gas shipments cannot save Europe from the fol

.

Download • 166KB