New LNG Infrastructure Coming On Line

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/finland-and-germany-starting-lng-imports

It has been nothing less than impressive to witness the rapid development of this new LNG infrastructure. No doubt everything has been categorized as a 'rush order'. And even with the red hot production time-tables, their coming 'on line' isn't soon enough as ships are already piling up in the Atlantic and we read of other nations eager to export LNG – and get a piece of the lucrative European market and its high demand.

Europe for its part will be eager to sign up with other nations from Australia, and Mozambique, to the Gulf States, rather than simply hand over its market (and its dependency) to the United States – which stands to make the greatest profit off this new economy. Indeed, even some European leaders have grown bitter at the myriad ways the US is profiting off the war in Ukraine and doing all it can to bolster and subsidize its own industries – at the expense of Europe.

LNG offers no real solution for the landlocked countries of Central and Eastern Europe. They can either import gas via Russian and Black Sea pipelines or try and buy gas from Western European nations who could potentially act as 'middle men'. I've been watching to see if anyone has written about it or whether there are contract restrictions on re-sale but thus far I haven't found much.

One solution might be joint-port and pipeline projects in either the Baltic or Black Seas, but that carries investment and strategic risks. And yet, the future of Russian gas is not clear either as everyone is waiting to see how Russia responds to price caps. Right now, the cap is set relatively high but that's likely to change and Moscow's response is anyone's guess. But one thing is certain, if there's a way Putin can manipulate the prices and delivery in order to divide Europe – it's in his interest to do so. It's clear enough that some Anglo-American military operation blew up the Nordstream pipelines, but there are still other options for Moscow.

A new economy is about to open up and investors are salivating. With high energy prices, inflation, and talk of rolling blackouts even in places like France – this winter is going to be interesting.