The UK may engage in gas transit to Europe

The UK is ready to become a transit country for natural gas to Europe amid attempts by European countries to reduce dependence on Russian gas due to the sanctions imposed. 

The operator of the unified British energy system, National Grid, expects an increase in gas exports from Britain to Europe over the next six months until September. The European Union hopes to fill its gas storage facilities sufficiently by next winter, which will allow countries to depend less on Russian gas imports.

According to National Grid, this summer gas exports from the UK to the EU could amount to 5.1 billion cubic meters. This figure significantly exceeds last year's data, when only 0.7 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas were exported.

The UK has three terminals where LNG can be converted back to a gaseous state, which makes the country attractive from the point of view of LNG transit. Currently, Europe receives 40% of gas through pipelines from Russia and intends to reduce dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds in 2022, which is a difficult task.

Russia also believes that today there is no reasonable replacement of Russian gas for Europe, and there are simply no free volumes on the market right now. At the same time, supplies from other countries, primarily the United States, which can be sent to Europe, will cost consumers many times more expensive, which will affect people's living standards.