LONDON, March 5. /TASS/. Europe is facing the threat of a new energy crisis amid rising energy prices and tensions in the Middle East, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper wrote.
The escalation of the situation pushed gas prices in Europe to their highest level since 2023 at the beginning of this week, with the cost soaring by 53% since February 27, the paper said. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has effectively stopped, and Iran’s strikes on facilities in Qatar forced it to halt LNG production, according to the publication. Moreover, on Wednesday, a liquefied natural gas tanker originally bound for France became the first cargo ship in the Atlantic Ocean to change course and head to Asia, which demonstrates intensified competition for supplies, the FT said.
Fiercer competition for LNG supplies comes as a particularly cold winter has depleted gas stocks in Europe, according to the newspaper. Storage facilities in the bloc’s countries are less than 30% filled, while the five-year average for this time of year equals around 45%, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Particularly low rates are observed in countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, and Latvia.
Europe currently receives about 10% of LNG it needs from Qatar, the FT said. However, if competition for supplies from other countries continues to drive up prices, inflation could rise substantially and hinder economic growth, especially in Italy and Germany, which are largely dependent on LNG imports, the paper noted.
The United States and Israel launched a large-scale military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. At the same time, US leadership openly called on the Iranian population to rise up against their government and seize power. As a result of the strikes, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several other senior figures in the leadership of the Islamic Republic were killed. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia were also hit.