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Europe Has Weathered an Energy Crisis, for Now



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“If China starts buying because they have opened up, and it is cold, then we are in trouble for the next couple of years,” said Marco Alverà, chief executive of TES, which plans to build facilities for importing gas in Wilhelmshaven in northwest Germany. As a precaution, the German government is urging consumers to remain frugal with energy.Marco Alverà, chief executive of TES, plans to bring L.N.G. and hydrogen to Wilhelmshaven in Germany.Credit…Patrick Junker for The New York TimesExperts like Mr. Alverà also say Europe has missed opportunities to lock up gas supplies from the United States with long-term contracts, largely because lawmakers don’t want to undermine climate goals aimed at reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. At the same time, Europe has so far failed to come up with a program like the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which provides businesses with large tax breaks for clean energy investments.Europe has “a lot of catching up to do,” said Mr. Alverà, a former chief executive of Snam, an Italian gas transmission company.In addition, gas production facilities around the world have been running flat-out with only modest additional supplies expected to come onto the market in the next two years. “Any supply disruptio …

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