Gaurav Sharma, Energy Analyst from Oilholics Synonymous spoke to CGTN Europe about the impact of Europe's reduced reliance on Russian gas, particularly for Slovakia and Moldova.
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00:00Talked to Gaurav Sharma the independent energy analyst and welcome back good to see you
00:05And what does the end of Russian gas in Europe mean for?
00:09Moscow historically of course reliance on its gas exports
00:15Good to be back in the program Jamie and happy new year to you and the CGTN team
00:20Well look new year new problems as your colleague was alluding to in his report
00:24and what I would say is that for Moscow it is it is a blue, but the
00:28The Russian side had actually been financially preparing for this the European seem to have been you know at least what they're conveying
00:36Right now seem to be caught out cold with the Slovakian head of state going over to talk to President Putin
00:42I don't see what that would have changed
00:44Slovakia knew it was exposed for a long for a prolonged period of time ever since the hostilities began in in
00:51In Ukraine, so what we have here is a situation whereby which about around 15 p.m.
00:5710 percent of Russian gas is going to be knocked off grid with Slovakia and Moldova being at the receiving end
01:03The Russian seem prepared the European side still seem to be sort of getting their heads out of the sand
01:09Some countries like Moldova now facing perhaps an energy crisis. What are their best options now I?
01:17Think the best option would be to plead to the neighbors now some Russian gas is still coming in
01:23There's a bit of Russian energy coming into Europe the third stream pipeline through which hungry
01:27Receives most of its product is still very much on stream, but they've declared a 60-day emergency
01:34I think things are going to be pretty bleak and the problem here
01:38Is that we keep alluding to supplies in Northern Europe that could be piggybacked on for a price of course?
01:43But storage in Northern Europe is also somewhat in 2023 levels
01:48So it's it's a bit of a pickle the Moldovans find themselves and the Slovakians as well
01:53How complex was the process of Europe diversifying?
01:57energy resources
02:00Look, this is the oldest
02:02Supply route to Europe it's been going on for but consider Peter
02:07Decoupling would never been easy and as it has proved out to be now
02:11What's gradually happened if you go top down from Europe from north to south?
02:16Gradually countries have been weaning themselves off
02:20Reliant on US energy for instance of Qatari energy or other sources
02:25That's further down south you go and the more you go towards Eastern Europe the more
02:30Difficult and the more expensive it becomes for these countries to wean themselves off
02:34But they as of now they have very little choice but to rely on their northern partners
02:39And there will be some political tensions associated with that
02:42So who else might be set to replace?
02:46Russian gas and how reliable are those alternative sources?
02:52See the the med can step in Mediterranean supplies can step in but for them to come in incremental volumes
03:00There is still a considerable amount of investment required
03:03Good will required on their parts for for for that particular gas to find its way for instance from from North African
03:10exporters for that to find its way to Italy for that to feed into the
03:14unbundled pipeline system that Europe has and for them to
03:17For that gas to ultimately find its way to the likes of Moldova and Slovakia
03:22But there are no easy solutions and every single alternative is going to be vastly more expensive than the current one
03:28Gaurav happy new year good to see you Gaurav Sharma the independent energy analyst