Qatar says it’s ‘almost impossible’ to quickly replace Russian gas supplies to Europe

Neither Qatar nor any other country has the capacity to replace Russian gas supplies to Europe with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the event of an interruption due to a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, its energy minister acknowledged.

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated on Tuesday after Moscow ordered troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.

“Russia (provides) something like 30%-40% of the supply to Europe. There is no country that can substitute that volume, there is no capacity to do it from LNG”, Minister Saad al-Kaabi told a gas conference in Doha.

“Most of the LNG is linked to long-term contracts and very clear destinations. Therefore, replacing that amount of volume so quickly is almost impossible.“, he pointed.

Qatar, one of the world’s top LNG producers, has recently been approached by the United States to divert gas supplies to Europe in case Russia attacks Ukraine and Washington imposes sanctions on Moscow.

It has most of its volumes locked in long-term contracts, mainly with Asian buyers, but it also ships cargoes to Europe.

Kaabi said that for Qatar the amount of divertable contracts that can be sent to Europe is only 10% to 15%.

Europe’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals have limited spare capacity to absorb extra supply from the United States or other major producers in case gas from Russia is cut off if it invades Ukraine.