Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has mentioned his nation — and southern Europe extra broadly — may present a solution to the shortfall in fuel provides from Russia because the area appears to double down on sanctions towards Moscow.
“Spain and, I’d say, Southern Europe, could have an opportunity to supply a solution to this power dependence of Russia fossil power,” Sanchez informed CNBC on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos late Monday.
Sanchez highlighted that Spain represents 37% of the European Union’s complete regasification capability — the place liquefied pure fuel is turned again into the top product of pure fuel. He additionally mentioned the Iberian Peninsula, occupied by Spain and Portugal, is house to round half of the EU’s LNG storage.
“This struggle additionally gave us a vital lesson, which is that renewable power, hydrogen, power effectivity is just not solely a fantastic ally for international locations and economies to deal with the local weather change efforts, but in addition on this very complicated and really unsure geopolitical situation that can present us additionally means to extend our resilience and autonomy,” he added.
Vitality costs have soared this yr as Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine destabilized the markets and Western nations slapped sanctions on Moscow. Costs on the Dutch TTF hub, a European benchmark for pure fuel buying and selling, greater than tripled between Feb. 16 and Mar. 7 as Russia launched the unprovoked invasion of its neighbor.
The difficulty of power safety — and hovering power costs — has been entrance and middle within the political debate in Spain, with Madrid being one of the vocal capitals in regards to the want for European motion to deliver down costs for customers.
Along with neighboring Portugal, Spain has launched a short lived cap on the worth of pure fuel and coal — a transfer that units them aside from a lot of the remainder of the EU.
Sanchez mentioned the EU’s power market is just not match to reply to the present disaster. “That is just the start of an enormous reflection that we have to face on the European degree,” he mentioned.
Spain angered Algeria earlier this yr after Madrid determined to re-export fuel to Morocco, amid a diplomatic standoff between the 2 North African nations who share a land border.
Sanchez on Monday dismissed the concept that Spain was substituting Russia for an additional unstable provider Algeria, which has threatened to close off fuel flows to Madrid as a result of its take care of Morocco.