(Reuters) – The European Union may need as many as 350 extra cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year, Helge Haugane, the head of gas and power trading at Norway’s Equinor, told Bloomberg News on Tuesday.
In a worst-case scenario, European gas reserves could be only 30% full by the end of the winter, Haugane said, adding that attracting cargoes will be critical to refilling storage over the summer, which could be costly and require regulatory intervention.
Equinor responded to a Reuters request for comment saying it did not have anything to add beyond what Bloomberg News reported.
“Europe needs to attract 230 more LNG cargos than last year, which represents an around 20% increase,” CEO Anders Opedal said last week. He also said this showed the potential competition for LNG between Europe and Asia over the summer.
Equinor in 2022 overtook Russia’s Gazprom as Europe’s biggest supplier of natural gas when Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine upended decades-long energy ties. Norway now meets around one-third of the continent’s demand.
Europe’s higher demand for refilling storage is also reflected in high gas prices for the summer months, which are more expensive than contracts covering next winter.
(Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
