The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, warned of a possible shortage of energy supplies in Europe during the coming winter.
Birol said, on the sidelines of the Munich Energy Conference, that European governments were fortunate to overcome the Russian gas supply crisis, after the mild winter of 2023 and the slowdown in the Chinese economy caused a decline in demand for Russian energy.
The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency also indicated that additional quantities of liquefied gas, estimated at about 23 billion cubic meters, will be pumped into the market this year, but he made it clear at the same time that it "will not represent anything", because China is likely to consume 80% of it.
Birol expected a shortage of supplies during the coming winter, despite the abundance of liquefied gas import stations, explaining that households and companies need to continue efforts to reduce gas use, and expand rapidly in the production of renewable energy.
For his part, Klaus Mueller, head of the German Network Agency - which is concerned with regulating the gas and electricity markets - said in an interview with the "Deutschland Funk" station today, Sunday, that he cannot rule out the possibility of a gas shortage during the coming winter, especially since Germany will have to Now to fill storage depots without Russian supplies that were flowing through pipelines.
He added that it would be good not to let storage levels shrink much below the current level of 71.52%.
Birol also called on countries that decided to phase out nuclear energy to reconsider the timing of implementing their decision, saying that the temporary extension of Germany's last nuclear power plants to April - for example - was a step in the right direction.