Europe will share the gas burden

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Kommersant FM radio station on the reform of energy markets in the EU.

As reported on the website of the European Commission, the initiative put forward back in December 2021 now looks like this: by the next heating season, a consortium will appear that will buy gas on the world market and provide it to European consumers. If necessary, the states will also share fuel with their neighbors.

Sergey Kondratiev believes that this will make the union clumsy. And it is unlikely that at least one large company will agree to join it of its own free will, the expert notes:

“I’m not sure that this experiment will take place at all. The companies will need to agree on how they will finance the purchases, which will happen in the event that someone fails to buy back their stake. There is a temptation to carry out calculations not at market prices, but at some kind of smoothed regulated prices. And this, too, may deter many companies from participating in such an agreement.”