French Regulator Expects Gas Situation in EU to Be Much Worse in Winter of 2023-2024
Gas 
PARIS (Sputnik) – Gas supplies to the European Union will remain limited in the coming years, with the energy situation expected to be even tighter in the winter of 2023-2024 than this heating season, Emmanuelle Wargon, the head of the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), told press.
"What we know is that the situation with gas supplies to Europe next winter will be much tighter than this winter. And although France does not consume much gas, Europe consumes quite a lot. We use gas for heating houses, and for our industry. Tensions with gas supplies will continue," Wargon said.
The CRE chief believes France will cope with limited gas supplies this winter, but it must carefully prepare for the 2023-2024 heating season.Western countries and their allies have been facing a massive energy crisis and struggling to fill their gas reserves in the aftermath of imposing sanctions on Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The West has responded by imposing comprehensive sanctions against Russia, with the EU pledging to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies. The Ukraine crisis and sanctions have led to disruptions of supply chains and a spike in energy prices worldwide.In October, the European Commission proposed a new package of measures to fight increasing energy prices, which includes mandatory joint purchases of 13.5 billion cubic meters of gas. The measure is designed to fill EU storage facilities by the winter of 2023-2024, establish a mechanism to limit excessively high prices at the TTF, Europe’s main trading hub for natural resources, and create a price benchmark for the LNG market.
