The Czech Republic’s special commissioner for energy security, Vaclav Bartuska, said the country’s authorities would do everything possible, including “burning everything” to keep people warm in the winter in case of a gas shortage.
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“If the gas is turned off this winter, we will burn everything we can to keep our people warm and generate electricity,” a government spokesman promised. He noted that the country is currently facing a second “oil shock”, referring to the 1973 crisis, when OPEC countries refused to supply oil to countries that supported Israel’s military actions in Syria and Egypt.
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Against the backdrop of technical problems with the Gazprom Nord Stream pipeline, Europe began to receive smaller volumes of gas, which became an additional impetus for the EU to buy fuel in another market and quickly abandon energy resources from Russia. Bartushka said that the Czech Republic is not sure that it will be able to refuse Russian fuel by 2027, and also whether Russia will stop gas supplies to the region. He believes that diversification of supplies to European countries is possible provided that importers sign long-term contracts.
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“We talked to potential LNG [liquefied natural gas] suppliers and they all wanted long-term contracts — 20 or 15 years, but most of them [want] 20 years,” he said.
