Marc Vidal: "Europe's winter gas tanks are not empty due to carelessness, but because the business has broken down"

The economist Marc Vidal, who has his own section on the program Herrera en Cope, presented by Carlos Herrera on the Cope network, has warned in his latest intervention of the problem that Europe is going to face with the arrival of winter and the supply of gas.

In his Emergency Exit section, Vidal recalls that Europe faces the coming months with gas reserves at their lowest levels since 2011, which is why a 7% reduction in consumption has been requested.

According to Vidal, at the beginning of October, European gas deposits were at 72% of their capacity. This means that the fuel will come out more slowly, which can cause supply problems in the event of a cold wave.

The problem is that the alternative, buying gas from abroad, would cost 3 billion euros, 12% more expensive than a year ago, in the context of the conflict in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's liquefied gas passes.

Vidal recalls that the warehouses are not in this situation due to carelessness, but because the storage business "has broken down." The reason is that summer gas has been priced more expensive than winter gas.

Faced with this distortion in the market, the administrations have intervened to assume the storage, causing "the taxpayer to now become a kind of winter trader."

Faced with this situation, the Netherlands has allocated almost 1 billion euros through the Government for its public company, Germany has imposed mandatory storage periods on its companies and Spain has increased the gas stored in regasification plants by more than 25%.

Similarly, Ursula von der Leyen has admitted that imported energy has meant an extra expense of 100 billion euros since February without having acquired a single additional molecule.