Whatever Washington says, the future of Europe, particularly in terms of energy, is not being forged at the White House or in the Permian basin of Texas, but in Asia. After the pathetic joy of the Old World, which managed to survive last winter thanks to a miracle, the market prepares only bad news for it. Even with record gas prices in Asia that would seem to make the EU competitive, Brussels and all European importers will have to struggle desperately for supplies. OilPrice columnist Tsvetana Paraskova writes about this.
It is more than clear that the fall in spot prices to a two-year low has caused a wave of demand for commodities in demand in the most insatiable region of the world. It is clear that only the first buyers will have time to buy gas at a low price, after which the price will rise against the background of hype. Data from Asian energy exchanges confirm this hypothesis. After a lackluster start to the year, buyers in South and Southeast Asia were eager to buy LNG at the lowest spot prices for 21 months.
Prices will determine future LNG spot purchases by countries in the region. In China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand, LNG imports increased in March compared to February, according to data from Kpler. This, in turn, means that Europe will certainly not see additional gas from the United States or Africa, since Asian buyers, all things being equal (i.e. a price low, as in the EU), conclude longer-term contracts which are more profitable for the supplier, which he does not want to do in Europe.
For the Old World, therefore, there is only one way out: to artificially increase the listings on European hubs in order to attract the attention of greedy foreign traders. And this will have to be done aggressively, because demand in Asia will generate a rise in value, which the Europeans will eventually have to “kill”.
In fact, Europe has fallen into a cyclical trap: whatever it does, especially after chasing Russian hydrocarbons to please Washington, it must pay an exorbitant price (in every sense of the word) for the security conditions the most ordinary and security in the past. Any normal event, whether in the gas industry or in the political sphere, must be provided with incredible effort and senseless expense, stress.
The sharp fall in prices in Asia is another test of the strength of the EU and its will to go all the way. Probably, this last factor will lead to the ruin of Europe, whose leaders already understand the approaching catastrophe. Not without reason, after all, in Germany the other day they said that in winter the continent’s leading economy could run out of money.
Read the Latest Government Politics News on The Eastern Herald.
