FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
DAVOS – The wave of instability in the Middle East is beginning to have potentially very destabilizing effects on the international and particularly European economy.
Qatar, the world's leading exporter of liquefied natural gas and a strategic supplier to Europe (and Italy), has virtually suspended the transit of its gas tankers from the Red Sea following the sharp drop in methane shipments from Russia.
At least five Qatari LNG ships traveling from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the entrance to the Red Sea towards Suez, were stopped by the authorities of the small Sunni emirate. The news is reported by the Arabic newspaper Gulf Gazette and picked up by the international agency Bloomberg, which cites its own analysis of tracking commercial sea routes.
Qatar is currently the second most important supplier of gas to Europe – especially Germany and Italy – while the regasification of its liquefied methane, including at the Piombino floating station, plays an important role in the European response to the near-total severance of relations with the Russian producer Gazprom.
Qatar's move, triggered by the attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels in Bab el-Mandeb and by the Anglo-American bombings on the Houthi positions themselves, could therefore trigger new uncertainties. There may also be a renewed increase in natural gas prices in Europe. However, in the current crisis, the entire European Union is confronted with particularly high gas reserves and has no urgent need for immediate supplies.