The Ukraine crisis and Russia's gas threat in Europe

Major russian gas pipelines to europe.
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Samuel Bailey (sam.bailus@gmail.com))   Details   Source   DMCA

The crisis in Ukraine tests Europe’s dependence on Russian gas against Russia’s dependence on European energy customers.

But there is little spare capacity in the LNG supply chain, and increased supplies to Europe will result in reduced supplies in other regions.

Norway, Europe's second largest supplier, is delivering natural gas at maximum capacity and cannot replace any missing supplies from Russia, its prime minister said.

The head of NATO has already advised Europe to diversify its energy supplies, but if Russia sees through a military intervention in Ukraine, Europe may be forced to cut demand.