Paris mission of zero net gas emission faces delay
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THE current events surrounding the energy market in Europe, which is figuring out how to cope with the Russian oil and gas supplies or with any threat of Russian gas supply, will certainly lead to energy panic. Russia is fully aware of the global energy situation, and that it can play the market at her convenience. Russia is also aware of the preparations being made by the European countries on the plan to phase out of the Russian energy orbit.
The next three to four years will be a critical period for the European countries in terms of structuring complete systems to build import facilities for receiving gas and then converting liquid to gas.
Meanwhile, the USA market is working on a bigger export facility with huge financial capital of more than $10 billion to cater for future supply of gas to most of the European countries, along with suppliers from Norway, Algeria and Qatar, who are also working on contracts and investing to bring on more on stream volume.
The Paris agreement calls for zero emission by the year 2035 and the issuance of a progress report every four years for monitoring the progress of its members who are committed to the objective of a limited raise of 1.5C. Most of the member countries are within their limits either by not responding to progress or just through constant delays.
Meanwhile, coal burning and production have not been curtailed, even though coal is the biggest enemy of the environment.
With the rise in oil prices, the US administration is now asking oil companies to go back to investing in oil and gas as well as in shale oil. This is aimed to bring down the energy prices. Otherwise, with the current fuel prices, consumers will find it hard to go along with the current administration.
It is easier to supply oil to Europe from almost every part of the world unlike gas, the supply of which is almost under full control of Russia with the presence of fully-intact logistics for direct gas supply through pipeline, which was built for Europe. This makes it very hard for Europe to move away. Besides, the rate of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas is almost 50 to 90 percent, which makes moving away a challenging and impossible task.
Even with the availability of gas, the vessel for carrying gas and the import facilities are not in place. They will require financing along with investments, and almost four to five years to furnish and complete.
In the end, will Russia stop the supply of energy, and risk a huge daily cash inflow, with little, or if any, additional source of revenues?
There is very little chance of Paris achieving its mission of “Zero Net Emission” in the coming few years; not until we see the end of today’s invasion and the crisis in Europe. It will take a long time to come.
email: [email protected]
By Kamel Al-Harami
Independent Oil Analyst
This news has been read 12959 times!
