LNG Only Fills Niches in Europe
What is Wintershall afraid of? That’s quite a knee-jerk reaction to a non issue – if it is a non-issue. I have rebuffed the old fallacy that pipeline gas is cheaper than LNG so many times, its not funny anymore. Pipelines are not free and the cost of a pipeline rises with distance and with the topographic challenge. Offshore pipelines are generally way more expensive than onshore pipes. And Russian gas comes from far away. Plus, new gas volumes in Yamal are hardly on the cheap side. Will anyone give us some honest accounting here. I predict that the entrepreneurial forces in US shale will eat the lunch on any other producer including Russia and Saudi Arabia over the long term. Its getting better by the day and when the last batch of troubles is done with, its production right inside the biggest market on earth. The volumes for Europe are not even a drop in the barrel for the US. But for Russia, it’s the lifeline. This explains quite some knee-jerk.
Although LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) provides a solid supplement to European gas supplies, the EU is and will remain a pipeline market – for good reasons, said Wintershall’s new position paper.
