Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Liquefied Natural Gas and Oil Prospecting: Discussion

Professor Barry McMullin:

There are two questions there. To be clear, I agree that the European response in the light of the Ukraine invasion to significantly expand the liquefied natural gas, LNG, infrastructure was necessary and correct and has significantly assisted in buffering energy supplies. We have also been fortunate to have had a relatively mild winter this year. The build-up in European-based storage over last summer was critical. The combination of those strategic interventions, not just in LNG, were very important and will need to be maintained. However, what I am saying is that the analysis I have seen is that we have now reached the point where that build-out that has already been done and committed to, and if we reduce natural gas consumption Europe-wide on the trajectory we say it needs to reduce at, within five years we will have a substantial excess in that capacity and we will be looking at retiring capacity, and stranded assets and so forth. In that context, that already committed infrastructure build-out is already on a trajectory to significantly exceed-----

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.