While Europeans bask in the warmth of spring, governments are in a race against winter.
Europe is trying to cut use of Russian natural gas because of the war in Ukraine, but still find enough fuel to keep the lights on and homes warm before it gets cold again.
That has sent officials and utilities racing to fill underground storage with scarce supplies of natural gas from other producers – competition that further raises already high prices as utility bills and business costs soar. Italy has announced new supplies from Algeria, while Germany has outlined an energy partnership with Qatar, a major supplier of liquefied gas that arrives by ship.
While those deals offer a long-term boost, they likely will have little impact on the crucial winter supplies that will be decided in the next several months. For now, the scramble in Europe is a zero-sum game: There’s little or no spare gas available to snatch up, and any supply that a country manages to get comes at the expense of someone else in Europe or Asia.
The limited number of export terminals for liquefied natural gas in Qatar, the U.S. and other LNG-exporting countries are booked solid, and new ones will take years and billions to build. On top of that, a plan for the 27-nation European Union to buy gas jointly looks good on paper but faces practical hurdles.