Preventing the natural gas shortage takes foresight, foresight, the ability to anticipate problems and then quickly devise solutions. Because of this, the European competition is won by a small Baltic country, Estonia. Estonian will be the first new offshore regasification facility to be inaugurated in record time – in November – after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s gas blackmail.
Estonia’s new terminal for converting liquefied gas imported from other parts of the world – bypassing the gas pipelines linking Europe with Russia by sea – will be a gigantic floating platform capable of accommodating the largest ships required for transport and the conversion (regasification) of LPG. The shipyard for the construction is already in the final stages in front of the port of Paldiski. The speed with which Estonia is about to cross the finish line of the first offshore regasification terminal after Ukraine is all the more admirable given that this country is hardly dependent on Russia for its energy supply (despite having a border of about 300 km with Russia).
Unlike Italy and Germany, three-quarters of Estonia’s energy needs are met by domestic production of shale oil, an oil extracted from rock using fracking or hydraulic fracturing techniques.
But in terms of forethought and foresight, another Baltic country had beaten Estonia well ahead: Lithuania, which got 100 percent of its gas from a single Russian Gazprom pipeline until 2014, built a regasification plant in 2014, the year of Putin’s invasion of Crimea . That is, the intentions of the Russian leader should have been clear to everyone.
Because re-carburetors are indispensable
Today, the importance of regasifiers has increased significantly: LPG transported by special tankers can come from many suppliers, including the two largest world producers, the United States and Qatar. Other producing countries equipped to deliver gas by sea are Norway and Australia. However, the export capacities are limited by the existence of suitable infrastructures, i.e. the corresponding port terminals in the countries of departure, where the fossil energy is converted from the gaseous to the liquid state (for transport) and then converted back in the opposite direction to the port of arrival; plus tankers, some of which are also floating conversion plants.
All players in this game are adapting to the new geography of world demand, and it will take at least a few years to significantly increase the capacity of transporting and converting natural gas by sea. Australia recently announced restrictions on its exports. In addition, European countries have to compete with those who were historical consumers of LPG transported on tankers: China, Japan, South Korea.
When to act? now
But in order to be less vulnerable tomorrow in the face of new shortages and new energy shocks, we must act now. Little Estonia offers a lesson to those in Italy who continue to resist and hesitate against regasifiers. Among other countries proving capable of overcoming ancient prejudices and dogmatic resistances: Holland is re-examining the possibility of resorting to fracking to extract natural gas from its subsoil, despite the urban legends about the damage of this technique (which has been banned in Germany).
For those who want to deepen the European panorama of regasifiers, I recommend starting with this New York Times report. Regarding Italy’s lack of social security, I would like to point out this criticism by energy expert Alberto Cl in the RivistaEnergia.it blog.
This passage indicates that, on the one hand, the Italian government is minimizing the risks of a gas shortage for this winter. One wonders how it is possible that public institutions can project reassurance, optimism and confidence with the right hand (government) and with the left hand (regulator) projecting uncertainties about the availability of gas and startling figures for hard-to-pay bills a big one part of families. Prepared for the worst: German lessons. Saying things as they are, being fully aware of them should instead be the communicative approach that should be taken. That is exactly what Germany is doing, where the government of Olaf Scholz, with an all-German popular stance, is threatening the possibility of a worst-case scenario on gas, which under the countermeasures would require the three nuclear power plants to remain in operation, which should have lasted until the end of the year to be decommissioned, as was done with three other plants in December. The government, with the full support of the pragmatic Greens, is proposing a “national compromise” for the country to avoid the worst for the economy and population this winter. CL’s comment was written before the state aid decree blocked increases in bills until early 2023. However, the problem remains: the lack of upstream gas will not be solved by a provision that interferes with tariffs downstream.
The Next Crisis…Lithium Shortages?
They call it the Saudi Arabia of lithium, a piece of Chile that concentrates 55% of the world’s deposits of this metal, essential for making electric car batteries. And not just electric cars: Lithium is also used in batteries to store energy from photovoltaic panels. The place in question is called Salar de Atacama. For us westerners, for this strategic location, the reason for a double alarm. First, because Chinese giant BYD has struck a deal with the Chilean government to mine lithium. Therefore, Beijing’s control over this strategic resource for the green transition will be consolidated. Second alert: Even BYD in a sea of trouble as a coalition of indigenous people and environmentalists managed to block this contract, accusing the mining activity of seriously damaging local water resources. For now, the Chilean Constitutional Court has upheld this appeal and halted lithium mining at this site, as documented by The Wall Street Journal.
August 12, 2022 10:13 p.m. – Change August 12, 2022 | 22:13
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