Energy Crisis May Last For Multiple Winters Warns Shell CEO

Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden has stressed the need for efficiency savings and rationing as the European Union looks at steps to bring down power prices across the region.

European oil conglomerate Shell PLC has today warned that Europe may have to face a series of Winters with inordinate power bills and rationing of electricity due to Russian constraints on gas supplies.

“It may well be that we have a number of winters where we have to somehow find solutions through efficiency savings, through rationing and as a very, very quick build out of alternatives,” Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden told reporters at a conference in Stavanger, Norway. “That this is going to be somehow easy or over, I think is a fantasy we should put aside — we should confront the reality.”

Europe is on the verge of a never-before-seen energy crisis as Russia restricts gas flows following the war in Ukraine. Even though German gas stores are refuelling quicker than anticipated, the country is predicted to fall short this winter if Moscow caps flows to the region’s largest economy.

The EU commented that it is devising urgent plans to drive down soaring power prices that are causing limitations of the current electricity market design. Governments across Europe have already side-lined in the region of 280 billion euros in fuel relief packages to aid the crisis.

Jut last month, Shell’s CEO said energy markets are predicted to remain constricted, with supply to be limited and prices volatile “not only for the remainder of this year but well into next year.”