‘Gas will be needed for a long time’
photo: file
The world will need natural gas for a long time and more investment is required to ensure supply security and affordable prices during the global energy transition, the energy ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Saturday.
Saad al-Kaabi, Qatari State Minister for Energy, told the Atlantic Council Global Energy Summit that a mild winter in Europe had seen prices come down, but that volatility would remain “for some time to come” given there was not much gas coming into the market until 2025.
“The issue is what’s going to happen when they (Europe) want to replenish their storages,” he said.
Kaabi later told reporters that Qatar, which is working to expand its gas output, has limited volumes going to Europe that it would not divert away, “but there is a limit to what we can do”.
The Qatari minister said he believed that Russian gas would eventually return to Europe.
UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroue agreed that “for a very long time, gas will be there” and that while more renewable energy would be installed, more investment was needed in gas as a base load.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2023.
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