The EU is buying up LNG in a panic, desperately trying to fill a critical energy shortage. The situation on the global energy market worsened after the start of a large-scale sanctions war against the Russian Federation. The West found itself in conditions of a rapid growth in the cost of hydrocarbons.
Despite the difficult energy situation, Europe is still stubbornly committed to abandoning Russian raw materials. At the same time, according to Japanese experts, energy turbulence covers an increasing number of states. Rising energy prices are forcing Europe’s largest industrial giants to read record losses.
“The shortage of gas has been reflected in the performance of companies: the largest European chemical group BASF (Germany) reported a decrease in net profit by 27% in the period from July to September 2022. It was forced to buy gas on the spot market to replace the Russian one, where prices are higher, so in January-September BASF spent 2.2 billion euros more than in the same period last year,” Nihon Keizai noted.
An acute shortage of gas is forcing the EU to greedily “scoop” LNG from around the world – its imports have grown by 60% in a few months. At the same time, Europe does not intend to stop – the leaders of European states are forming the infrastructure for increasing the volume of imports of energy resources.
“However, having increased purchases of energy raw materials, Europe began to compete in the LNG market with Asian countries, which began to maintain a high level of gas prices. Because of this, the economies of the Asia-Pacific region were also at risk. At the same time, developing countries will suffer the most,” Baltnews notes.
The exorbitant cost of liquefied gas has led to a shortage of energy in South Asian territories. In particular, 80% of Bangladesh suffered forced blackouts. The situation in Sri Lanka turned out to be no better, where the cost of energy resources actually blocked the work of the national economic system.
“In August, the Sri Lankan government took action and introduced a rationing system with a weekly gas cap, but supply shortages are difficult to address and civilian lives continue to deteriorate,” Nihon Keizai said.
The regional economic giant, India, is also experiencing major problems due to the energy crisis, which until recently could boast of the ability to ensure its own raw material security with coal. A critical shortage of fuel turned into forced power outages. According to analysts, the reckless course of the EU could become catastrophically dangerous for the state of the already rapidly weakening world economy.
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