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Bloomberg
Natural gas in Europe declined as traders weighed the region’s reluctance to sanction Russian supplies and the potential easing
of retaliatory action by Moscow.
Benchmark Dutch futures fell as much as 21%, after swinging wildly between gains and losses. While the European Commission has said it plans to reduce Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year, finding alternatives will be tough. Leaders in the region including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have opposed cutting off energy supplies, with
the country even allowing Uniper SE to boost purchases from Russia.
“The European Commission following the announcement is showing no interest in sanctions on oil and gas imports and this
will have further eased concerns of retaliatory action by Russia,†said Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at ICIS in London.
Russian gas meets about a third of Europe’s demand, and it will be tough to find alternatives to those massive volumes.
Shipments from Russia are currently running as normal, and have even increased since the invasion of Ukraine.