The International Energy agency has revealed that lng now makes up 35 of europes energy supplies, not far off the 40 contribution that russia made before it was sanctioned over ukraine. Joining me now is ben mcwilliams, whos an Affiliate Fellow at bruegel. Thank you very much for being with us today. What are your concerns about where gas prices could go if these workers do indeed strike . This is certainly a concern, but to be clear up front, nothing comparable to last year. The position we are in is that, as you mentioned, as russian Pipeline Supplies have been cut over the last 12 months, the eu and uk have become more dependent on liquefied national gas. Natural gas. Australia typically supplies asia. If it were cut to asian consumers, we would see asian consumers turning around and looking to qatar and competing with european buyers there, which would in turn have some Knock On Effect on prices. As it had last week, 40 increase from around 30 to 36 euros just nothing like close to
comparison to what we saw last ear. ., ~ , ., , . year. 0k, thank you very much forjoining year. ok, thank you very much forjoining us year. 0k, thank you very much forjoining us today. in other business today. pubs in england and wales will be able to continue selling takeaway drinks after the government decided to keep covid licensing rules. they has been allowed to serve customers through hatches when they were forced to close under pandemic laws in 2020. the rules were due to expire on september 30, but they will now be continued until march 2025. us steel has rejected a $7.3 billion takeover offer from its rival, cleveland cliffs, and launched a formal review of its business. the offer from cleveland was at a 43% premium to us steel s closing price after trading had ended on friday. any potential merger between the two would create a global steelmaking giant in an industry currently dominated by china. meta s chief executive, mark zuckerberg, has claimed that his tech industr