Today’s Zaman: Reality check: Cold spell should trigger cool-headed debate about Europe's energy policies

By Alexander Medvedev*

Frost came late this winter, but when it came, it brought freezing temperatures, ice and snow to large parts of Eurasia and even North Africa. The European demand for energy, which had been modest due to flagging economies and a mild winter, skyrocketed overnight. In the short time span between Christmas and the beginning of February, demand for Russian natural gas alone rose by 50 percent. And when even the frost-hardened Russians put their radiators on maximum, gas consumption was nearing record highs.

Gazprom swiftly reacted to this surge in demand by increasing its gas production to the upper limits. As gas upstream pipelines are never designed for permanent extreme demand -- this would be economically unfeasible -- we simultaneously started to increase gas distribution from our underground gas storage facilities located across Russia and Europe. This two-pronged strategy is a standard procedure for cold spells and allowed us to deliver no less than 99 percent of all requested gas every day throughout the month of January. However, as the cold spell lingered on into February, the European aggregate gas demand was too large to be met in full.

Current excess demand, which is not covered by supply contracts between Europe (including Turkey) and its major suppliers, should be addressed as a joint effort by all leading gas exporters. Gazprom supplies roughly one-quarter of the gas consumed in the EU. Consequently, one could expect non-Russian suppliers to cover roughly three-quarters of the excess demand. The truth is that all suppliers, including local, as well as Algeria, Azerbaijan, Iran, Libya and Norway, are struggling to meet the exceptionally high volume, long-lasting natural gas needs of their customers.  MORE