Yesterday, the EU's first coal embargo on Russian energy sanctions came into effect. As we all know, Russia is not only the country with the largest natural gas reserves in the world, but also the world's largest natural gas exporter, and it seems to be more effective to attack its gas sector, but why is the EU afraid of it?
According to statistics, Europe's own natural gas production is not much, and its dependence on foreign countries is as high as 90%, of which about 40% of natural gas comes from Russia. Previously, Russia reduced the gas transmission volume of Nord Stream 1, which has already made Europe feel the pain of "lack of gas", and some international agencies said that Europe needs more than three years to find an alternative to Russian natural gas.
(Source: Subtu network)
In order to carry out the sanctions to the end, Europe has made it clear that it will completely get rid of Russia's energy dependence by 2027, but as it stands, Europe is still struggling to find a russian gas alternative. Perhaps considering that relying solely on gas support from the United States and Australia may be a stopgap measure, Europe has expanded its focus to Africa to ensure that there are enough gas stockpiles.
(Source: Subtu network)
Africa has 7.1% of the world's proven natural gas reserves. At present, Africa does not export much natural gas to Europe, only algeria and Nigeria supply natural gas to Europe. But according to IEA estimates, Africa is expected to send 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe by 2030, about one-fifth of Russia's natural gas exports to Europe.
Germany has been hit the hardest by the decline in Russian gas, and in May this year, the German chancellor made his first trip to the West African country of Senegal to ensure gas supply. To put it bluntly, Germany is to ensure that it can get a share of Africa's natural gas, and it is also a visit to Senegal because of the country's rich natural gas reserves.
(Source: Subtu network)
Senegal has gas reserves of up to billions of cubic meters and is expected to become a major natural gas producer in West Africa. Although Senegal's leaders did not explicitly respond to Germany's "request" at the time, by the 12th of this month, Senegal had brought good news to Germany, and even to Europe as a whole: Senegal announced that it would start exporting natural gas to Europe in 2024. In addition, Senegal also expects natural gas production to reach 2.5 million tons in 2023 and 10 million tons by 2030.
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