Natural gas prices, already climbing over the past year, rose further in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a move that came after Germany halted certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline when Russia recognized the breakaway Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic.
“We are also closely monitoring global oil and gas market conditions, including in the context of Russia’s further military aggression against Ukraine,“ the statement reads. ”We support consistent and constructive engagement and coordination among major energy producers and consumers toward our collective interest in the stability of global energy supplies, and stand ready to act as needed to address potential disruptions.”
Marc Morano, proprietor of Climate Depot, told The Epoch Times that the G7 statement was “laughable,” given that up to 40 percent of European natural gas comes from Russia.
“The G7 is the reason that Europe is in this mess and beholden to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,“ Morano said. ”Do you know how many G7 summits they’ve had, virtue signaling to the net-zero agenda for Europe’s version of the Green New Deal? Putin has them by the neck—he knows he has the power to tank their economy by shutting down his energy.”
On Feb. 4, Russia and China signed a 30-year deal for a new gas pipeline linking the Russian Far East with northeastern China.
Morano of Climate Depot told The Epoch Times that Germany’s actions amount to posturing.
“The effects on Germany will be far worse than the effects on Russia. It’s kind of like cutting off your nose to spite your face,” he said.
Scholz, a member of the socialist Social Democratic Party of Germany, has formed a “traffic light coalition” with Germany’s Green Party. The Green Party’s candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline during her campaign.
“As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate,” Biden said.
In the United States, the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report revealed that the lower 48 states had 1.78 trillion cubic feet in storage as of Feb. 18.
That total, which was 129 billion cubic feet lower than the previous week’s, is 214 billion cubic feet below the five-year average.
An EIA spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the agency doesn’t have any updated natural gas forecasts following the Ukraine invasion.
Geoffrey Lakings, an analyst with IIR Energy, told The Epoch Times via email that worldwide gas inventories have made for “incredibly tight global gas markets.”
“Europe is going to likely struggle to fill their caverns going into next winter,” Lakings said. “We know that their LNG [liquid natural gas] terminals are mostly heavily utilized at this time.”
Some media sources have closely linked energy price trends to events in Ukraine.
“Putin has taken a very bad situation and made it worse,” he said.
Russia’s actions are forcing a debate over the future of energy in Europe, where energy prices have been rapidly rising.
“Russia’s actions are likely to make the search for energy independence more intensive. Whether that will include the licensing of fracking depends upon how much good sense the British government shows on the subject,” Tim Worstall, a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute and author of the Net Zero Watch report, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Lakings of IIR Energy said the invasion “will change the very nature of the energy transition itself,” noting that it has provided incentives for U.S. regulators to approve more domestic oil and gas production.
Europe “will have to think how closely they are tied to Russia for energy,” he said.
“Now they will have to pivot.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to energy researchers known for their advocacy of net-zero policies, but didn’t hear back by press time.
