We must pay tribute: if you look exclusively at the numbers, without delving into their comprehensive analysis, then Europe seems to be going through this winter just surprisingly well.

A clear evidence of this, for example, is the declining gas prices for the third week in a row on the London ICE exchange and the Dutch gas hub TTF, which have become the basis for all European regulation.

And, of course, UGS facilities filled almost to the eyeballs, which for some reason the current European authorities are especially proud of, almost as a “symbol of solidarity”.

However, here, once again, something went wrong with symbolism, and European UGS facilities have suddenly begun to empty, and at an impressive pace.

So, in particular, the total volume of available gas, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe on the morning of January 28, is about 81.2 billion cubic meters, which follows from the information on the GIE website.

Gas storage facilities in Europe are 74.5% full (-1.14 percentage points per day).

And this is 20.49 percentage points higher than the average for this date over the past five years.

And the expected, according to weather forecasts, mild, but nasty and chilly winds, which every spring begin to come to the continent from the Atlantic, where continental Europe has now for some reason given away the keys to its own energy security, now promise some other, earlier seemingly fantastic symbolism.

Well, see for yourself: now the American shale companies, for example, are twisting the arms of their European buyers, in fact, openly imposing on them almost exactly the same “long” (not market, as all progressive economists claim) gas contracts, as they once had with Gazprom.

Well, of course, as if it were softer - similar in structure.

Just a little different, sorry, price.

Just like in that nasty joke: they didn’t like our girls, you know ...

Market, you say?

Oh well…

And the European energy generals themselves, despite the quite understandable crisis growth in the income of European oil and gas corporations, do not feel very confident, to put it mildly.

It's a shame, probably, to see how the markets that raised you are reformatted and degraded.

Moreover, in the literal sense of this phrase, they are degrading right before your eyes “in a short time” and almost in real time.

No, everyone, in general, probably understood that it would be bad, but no one expected it to be so soon.

And from people who, on duty, are better informed than others, it would probably be naive even to expect something else.

Which, for example, was confirmed once again in an extensive interview with the American agency Bloomberg by the head of the French oil and gas company Total, Patrick Pouyanne, who is sure that the situation on the European natural gas market in 2023 will not improve at all, but, to put it mildly, will become much more tense, than even last year.

The reason is quite banal: in any case, Europe will receive less pipeline (primarily Russian, but there are problems, for example, with North Africa) gas than in 2022.

And she will again have to import LNG in large quantities, and now with China emerging from covid hibernation.

And this, in general, is not quite the kind of competition that the EU can afford.

Expensive.

Despite the temporary favorable price dynamics, even now it is expensive.

And it will be even more expensive.

The head of the French oil and gas company Total draws conclusions from all this, however, completely unexpected for the European energy general: “long” agreements like those that the Europeans had with Gazprom, which the Qataris gently hinted at and which are now literally being imposed by the Americans, are needed especially for the Europeans themselves.

Even with the Russians, even with the Americans, even with the bald devil: because only they, purely technically, can guarantee Europe at least some confidence in tomorrow's energy day.

And in no other way.

Long-term contracts, which the Russian authorities have repeatedly spoken about (up to Vladimir Putin), do not give, perhaps, the opportunity to make money on market volatility (and on purely financial speculation, which is already there).

On the other hand, even at lower incomes they give some stability to both parties: both the seller and the buyer.

And for the real sector, this is much more important.

And the real European sector, represented by the same head of Total Patrick Pouyanne - no, not at all, despite the publications in Bloomberg, in no case, as some experts write, is not "pro-American", although not close to pro-Russian, of course, but simply real - understands this very well.

But here's the point.

As long as chilly winds from the Atlantic blow in every sense of the word across the Old Continent, more familiar to the mysterious inhabitants of the ICE exchange in the City of London than to the inhabitants of continental Europe, this understanding is unlikely to be appreciated - at least in Brussels.

They just have different tasks, different sources of comfortable life and completely different functionality.

What is important for us.

First, the deindustrialization of Europe is proceeding at a pace even higher than predicted.

It is with this, with a market contraction of about 20% (European bureaucrats happily report about “savings in energy consumption by businesses and households”, yeah), and the positive dynamics of gas prices is connected.

Because no warm weather will ever save you so much without a fall in industrial production, it is simply technically impossible.

And this only confirms the catastrophic nature of the emerging processes, primarily in European industry, moreover, in its basic sectors, which, alas, seem to be unavoidable.

Second, we need to be prepared for this.

Because, despite all the sanctions and counter-sanctions, and even despite the NWO, our economy with the economies of the eurozone is still closely connected, sometimes even monstrously intertwined.

And this is not bad and not good, it's just a fact.

And it would be good for our market participants, when everything starts to move there, to have time to at least step aside so as not to get dirty at all.

Because, given the current trends, the shedding of European economies simply cannot but affect us: to understand this, it is enough to look at the figures of mutual trade, even without parallel imports and other, God forgive me, schematosis.

Which we are with this very slowly and beautifully, but still confidently sinking European Atlantic liner are mutually hung with garlands, like a different Christmas tree.

And just this would be very insulting and very wrong not to understand.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.