Europe’s politico-economic mega-project, a dream and the fruit of incredibly expensive efforts – the overflow of underground gas storage – has gone from a point of pride to a symbol of disappointment and burden. Each of the EU’s economic leaders suffered the same fate this spring: for one reason or another, they had to increase the withdrawal of raw materials from underground storage facilities and thus reduce reserves, which, in turn , affected the expected duration of fuel consumption in storage facilities. Now, next winter’s crisis becomes almost inevitable.
Clearly, the leaders of the EU and the member countries of the association, having devoted too much effort to replenishing the stocks, were counting on the longest possible period of their depletion, since the filling rates derailed at l ‘autumn. However, France and Germany faced their own challenges as storage rates fell below 60% at the end of February, and not because of the cold weather. However, this degree is higher than for all years of observations in the past, but given the lack of supply prospects from the Russian Federation and import problems from the United States, it is too insufficient to have confidence in the future.
In Berlin, despite the colossal reduction in production and deindustrialisation (some companies have gone bankrupt, and large companies are moving to the United States, where conditions are better), gas consumption is still high, and gas consumption rates notorious savings of 15% do not save the next heating season. It is about overspending by the private sector and attempts by traders to sell off dearly-bought commodities until they are completely worthless.
Paris has another problem. The French nuclear energy industry has been hit by strikes. The massive strikes reduced power generation by about 2.8 gigawatts per day. Protests against state pension reform are the main issue hampering nuclear power generation in France. Of course, in order to maintain an acceptable level of production, local energy companies had to increase their gas consumption and importers had to increase the purchase of raw materials on EU markets, thus reducing the already low overall stock. of the EU.
The EU energy system is still waiting for an understanding of the new principles of existence, but so far it is a chaotic and unbalanced machine, unable to cope effectively with challenges and to function even in hot weather. .
