“Growing concerns about the security of gas supplies in Europe […] This means that higher volumes of natural gas may be required from alternative sources to replenish the EU depot in the face of winter. “ National Grid, which owns Britain’s main gas pipeline and balances gas supplies, believes exports to Europe are set to reach 5.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) this summer. This is in line with the summer five-year average by 2021, but is much higher than the 0.7 bcm exported last summer, when cold weather and few LNG shipments to Britain meant there was no more to sell. The increase in exports this summer is expected to occur as a result of normal trade regulations based on prices in Europe, as opposed to any request from European or British officials, and to meet UK demand.
Paul Sullivan, head of future gas markets at National Grid, said: “The trade chain is normal. The shippers will buy it [the UK] and then they exchange it through trade agreements and it will flow through interconnections “. The government said in its new energy security strategy released last week that the United Kingdom was providing a “key entry point to the EU for non-Russian gas supplies”. The ministers “are working closely with the United States on gas, particularly on how we can use the UK’s LNG infrastructure to support European supply,” he added. They are also “examining our infrastructure to ensure efficient gas flows between the United Kingdom, Europe and the world market”. The United States has pledged to try to send an additional 15 billion cubic meters of gas to the EU this year to help it wean itself off Russian supplies. Britain has three terminals where LNG can be converted back to gaseous form, in Wales and Kent.
This means that large volumes of gas can be imported into Britain from the US or elsewhere before being shipped to Europe. About 10-12% of LNG supplies to the UK, however, come from Russia in recent years, accounting for about 3% of the UK’s total gas supply. The government wants to restrict it and has banned Russian ships from UK ports, although part of Russian gas can still pass as a cargo to non-Russian ships. Germany, one of the European countries most dependent on Russian gas, has no terminals to convert LNG to gaseous form.