An Energy Crisis Years in the Making

With gas inventories low, Europe is at the mercy of two wily forces: Vladimir Putin and the weather

- By Isis Almeida, Ewa Krukowska, and Anna Shiryaevskaya, with Elena Mazneva, Olga Tanas, and Vanessa Dezem. Photographs by Andrey Rudakov

The retired salt caverns, aquifers, and fuel depots that hold Europe’s stockpiles of natural gas have never been so empty at this point in winter. Just four months after Amos Hochstein, the U.S. envoy for energy security, said the countries of the European Union weren’t doing enough to prepare for the dark and cold season ahead, the bloc is grappling with a supply crunch that’s caused benchmark gas prices to more than quadruple from last year’s level, squeezing businesses and households. The crisis has left the EU at the mercy of the weather and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s wiles, both notoriously difficult to predict.

“The energy crisis hit the bloc when security of supply was not on the menu of EU policymakers,” says Maximo Miccinilli, head of energy and climate at consultants FleishmanHillard EU. He expects the energy crunch to keep prices volatile, triggering more political tension between regulators in Brussels and the leaders of the bloc’s 27 member states.

Although the situation came to a head abruptly, it’s been years in the making. Europe is in the midst of an energy transition, shutting down coal-fired electricity plants and increasing its reliance on renewables. Wind and solar are cleaner but sometimes fickle, as illustrated by the sharp drop in turbine-generated power the continent recorded last year.