In line with IEEFA, the hole between Europe’s LNG capability and demand continues to widen. Europe has added six new LNG terminals for the reason that starting of 2022, plus one growth, a beforehand mothballed terminal and a brand new floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) that’s docked however not but operational, whereas LNG imports have flattened and fuel consumption retains declining.
LNG import capability is about to achieve 406 billion m3 in 2030, a rise of 143 billion m3 from 2021 ranges, whereas fuel consumption is forecast to fall to round 400 billion m3 because the continent pushes forward with fuel demand discount insurance policies.
The utilisation price of Europe’s LNG terminals averaged 58% between January and September 2023. Within the face of declining European fuel consumption, it raises questions as as to if Europe must construct extra LNG infrastructure by 2030.
“The decline in fuel demand is difficult the narrative that Europe wants extra LNG infrastructure to achieve its vitality safety targets. The info is exhibiting that we don’t,” mentioned Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, an IEEFA vitality analyst. “Regardless of vital progress in direction of decreasing fuel consumption, international locations in Europe danger buying and selling a reliance on Russian pipelines for a redundant LNG system that additional exposes the continent to risky costs.”
Whereas European LNG imports from January to September 2022 elevated by 62% compared with the identical interval in 2021, LNG imports in 2023 have flattened, growing simply 4% year-on-year. In the meantime, the European Union (EU) has met its winter fuel storage targets forward of schedule.
The EU alone spent €41 billion on LNG imports between January and July 2023, with the U.S. (€17.2 billion), Russia (€5.5 billion) and Qatar (€5.4 billion) the most important beneficiaries.
As of September 2023, the EU, Türkiye and the UK had imported a complete of 125 billion m3 of LNG.
European imports of Russian LNG between January and September 2023 remained regular in comparison with the identical interval in 2022. Prime-line figures masks nationwide variations, with Spain and Belgium growing their LNG imports by 50% in 2023 in comparison with the earlier yr. Terminals in Belgium and France additionally proceed transshipping Russian LNG volumes from the Yamal challenge.
This replace is a part of IEEFA’s European LNG Tracker, a publicly accessible interactive knowledge set to visualise Europe’s LNG infrastructure, demand and capability outlook, and import and export flows.
Learn the article on-line at: https://www.lngindustry.com/special-reports/06112023/ieefa-europe-plans-continued-lng-infrastructure-buildout/
