Neither Qatar nor any other country has the capacity to replace Russian gas deliveries to Europe with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the event of an interruption due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Qatar's energy minister said yesterday.
Most of Qatar's gas is bound by long-term contracts, mainly with Asian customers, and divertable quantities it can deliver to Europe amount to only 10-15 percent, said Saad al-Kabi.
"I think Russia provides 30-40 percent of supplies to Europe. There is no country that can replace that amount, there is no LNG capacity to do that," Kabi told reporters at a conference in Doha.
"Most of the LNG is tied to long-term contracts and destinations that are very clear. Therefore, it is almost impossible to replace that volume so quickly," he assessed.
The US recently appealed to Qatar and other countries such as Japan to divert gas supplies to Europe in the event of an escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Sources told Reuters that Qatar's LNG supply has been reduced in the past few days as two of its facilities are out of service, another factor that could limit spare supplies to be sent to Europe.
Yesterday, Germany "froze" the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project across the Baltic Sea, which would double the flow of Russian gas directly to Germany. That move led to an additional increase in gas prices yesterday.
Japan said earlier this month that it would divert some LNG to Europe following requests from the US and the European Union.
"We haven't seen anything concrete happen in terms of supplies yet. That could change, but Qatar and Japan will have limited ability to help with additional supplies if Europe loses access to Russian gas," said Robert Songer, LNG analyst at ICIS .
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