Next Winter Harder for EU Gas: Trafigura

Europe may survive a gas disaster this winter according to Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at Trafigura, but next year will be harder.

• This winter is being helped by solid inventories and demand reduction but next winter, the balance of gas will be much less.
• "Europe was heading towards an unavoidable situation this winter...but there is a lot of evidence that people are doing the right thing and reducing their energy consumption," he said.
• "We may well avoid a disaster this winter, we are more concerned about the following winter," he added.
• "You're not going to get a significant amount of your infrastructure built for you that will allow incremental regasification of LNG," Luckock said.
• "If the Russian situation continues the way it is...it doesn't seem like that's going to be solved," he added.