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Gas crisis in Europe: In Israel, gas is 80% cheaper Israel today

2021-09-24T07:07:49.784Z


Some countries are preparing to subsidize electricity bills for low-income people • Factories have started to burn coal and its prices are soaring • Commentators: "The transition to renewable energies may set us back"


After last year the demand reached a low, the prices of natural gas in the world are raging and in recent days the $ 25 threshold per million thermal units has been broken (according to the accepted British index).

Russia, which is responsible for almost half of Europe's natural gas supply, did not expect such a level of demand as early as September, and is busy repairing its pipelines and returning gas to local pipelines. In the North Sea winds began to blow and demand seemed to arise at once. Recall, just a year ago demand was at an unprecedented low that brought prices to a tenth of what is now customary. In Israel, it will be recalled, the IEC recently reached a new agreement to purchase the blue-and-white natural gas at a price of $ 4.8 - more than 80% less than its current price. If, God forbid, we were not educated to develop the gas reservoirs, Israel would have had to import LNG gas at a price of more than $ 25, before the cost of transportation.

Natural gas reserves in Europe are at an all-time low: about 25% less than the average typically stored in them.

In our case, the gas reservoirs themselves are also reserve reservoirs, but in Europe, where natural gas consumption is very high, gas flows to old reservoirs and is used as intermediate stations, which also contributes to price regulation.

Things have come to the point that Germany and other countries are preparing to subsidize energy for the less able who will not be able to pay their electricity bills in the coming months.

Fears in Europe that Russia is taking advantage of the situation and reducing supply as manipulation.

Putin and Merkel, Archive // ​​AP News Agency,

Amir Foster, CEO of the Association of Gas Companies, told Israel Today: "In most of the world, people pay five times as much as in Israel, and here the prices are low.

In this challenging period, this is of critical importance for the economy - the low gas and electricity prices constitute a significant relative advantage for industry and the local consumer. "

Energy prices in Europe have soared in the last decade mainly due to the pressure to lower the level of pollutant emissions, which has led Europe to increase the allocation to wind and hydraulic production projects.

The construction of these infrastructures is very expensive and they also do not completely replace the production of electricity from natural gas and other fuels.

In other words, the addition of 100 units of renewable energy detracts from a maximum of about 30 units of traditional energy, because renewable energy is hardly stored and is not available 24 hours a day.

Meanwhile, an energy crisis is very quickly becoming a political crisis.

US Energy Minister Jennifer Greenholm has already spoken out against the dramatic drop in Russia's supplies to Europe and expressed concern that Russia is taking advantage of the situation and reducing supply as a manipulator. Approve the laying of the gas pipeline to it - the "Nord Stream 2" project, which has been delayed for years.

In any case, Europe has already started burning coal as an alternative to the scarce natural gas.

This is now happening in factories that cannot afford gas prices, but this trend is likely to intensify, as can be learned from the growing demand for coal.

A year ago there was no price for this commodity and in recent months it has skyrocketed again - those who managed to stock up on $ 100 worth of coal at the end of last year now enjoy a price of $ 170 or more.

This fact, commentators around the world write, implies that an overly pretentious pursuit of emissions reduction targets will throw us back - to the level of emissions from coal, which is double and multiplied by that of natural gas.

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-09-24

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