Paris-Sana
The International Energy Agency called on European Union countries to prepare to reduce gas consumption by 30 percent during the winter season, amid the supply crisis.
And Bloomberg Agency quoted Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency, as saying: “European Union countries are required to reduce consumption by next February if Russia stops all gas supplies.”
Russia has not announced a halt to gas supplies, but the gas arriving to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has fallen by almost half since last week, according to the European Commission.
Russia supplied the European Union with about 40 percent of its gas needs, amid the bloc's efforts to reduce supplies and move away from Moscow in the field of energy, which these countries are facing difficulty in implementing.
Birol warned that "if gas supplies are stopped, the stocks of the European Union countries will face a crisis before the onset of winter, which puts the European Union in a difficult situation."
It is noteworthy that Russia is the largest producer of natural gas in the world with an annual average of 638 billion cubic meters, and it is the largest exporter of it with an annual average of 240 billion cubic meters.
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