The body warns that European reserve levels could be lower than today at the start of winter 2023-2024, and calls on governments to “act immediately”.
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Europe risks running out of gas for the winter of 2023-2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Thursday 3 November, calling on governments to “act immediately” particularly to reduce demand.
Some 30 billion cubic meters of gas could well be missing next year, in the event of a complete cessation of deliveries from Russia but also because of the economic rebound of China which would come to absorb a large part of the LNG, estimates in its calculations the IEA, created by the OECD in 1974 to advise countries on energy matters.
European reserves would then only be 65% full at the start of winter 2023-2024, compared to 95% today, its director, Fatih Birol, told a few journalists during an online press conference. .
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“The ‘cushion’ provided by current reserve levels, together with the recent decline in gas prices and unusually warm temperatures, should not lead to overly optimistic conclusions about the future.”, warns the IEA in this analysis. She points out that by the summer of 2023, the global geopolitical and economic conditions for sourcing and filling reserves are expected to have changed significantly compared to 2022.