Europe | Shiver for longer

Europe’s next energy crunch

The winter of 2023 could be worse than 2022

Pipework at the Bad Lauchstaedt gas storage facility, operated by VNG AG, in Bad Lauchstaedt, Germany, on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. Germany is in advanced talks to take over VNG and two other large gas importers in a historic step to avoid a collapse of its energy market, according to people familiar with the matter. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Oct 21st 2022

The Dutch province of Groningen sits on Europe’s biggest proven gasfield. Decades of extraction have caused small earthquakes that have left thousands of houses unstable, leading the government to reduce gas flows to a minimum and promise to shut the field by 2024. Gas prices are now so high that if it allowed regular pumping, the government could make every owner of a wobbly home a millionaire. But that is politically impossible. Even in the midst of an energy crisis, which could get worse in 2023, support for boosting energy production is shaky.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The very long winter”