European countries poised to use more coal in winter

BRUSSELS

Many European countries plan to burn more coal this winter due to the energy crisis, according to the Secretary-General of the European Association for Coal and Lignite (Euracoal) Brian Ricketts on Tuesday.

Ricketts told Anadolu Agency that many European countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Greece and the UK have the potential to generate electricity from coal, given that they can either reopen coal power plants or extend their operating period.

Despite the energy crunch, he said that Europeans do not consider coal as a "knight in shining armor", but merely "a welcome arrival on the scene."

He argued that reliance on imported gas was a mistake and the European Commission’s stance is to pursue the renewables agenda even harder.

Nonetheless, he recommended that the EU take steps to relax certain coal regulations to mitigate the negative effects of the energy crisis and fill the gap left by natural gas.

"The whole point of the actions that we are taking is to maintain some sort of stability during a difficult situation," he said.

Uncertainties caused by the Russia-Ukraine war have given rise to unprecedented gains in natural gas and electricity prices and coal prices have not escaped, quadrupling over the last year to as high as over $400 per ton.

Nonetheless, Ricketts anticipates that coal prices for September future contracts in European markets, which are currently trading at $405 per ton from $100 in this period last year and $60 a year earlier, would not sustain at this level.

"It is impossible to make any predictions from where we are. You've seen how spiky prices have been. So, prices are firstly at historic high levels and secondly, very volatile. So you cannot make predictions in such a market," he said.

He expects that the share of coal in electricity production in the EU, which stood at 15% overall last year, could rise to over 20% by the end of the year.

The EU imposed a coal import ban starting from mid-August within the scope of its sanctions against Russia, resulting in high coal stocks at ports.

Before the sanctions, Russia was the country that supplied the most coal to EU countries, marking about 25% of its coal exports.

The EU was dependent on Russia for 45% of its coal imports and 70% of its thermal coal supplies.

Currently, alternative coal imports come from the US, which stepped up its exports but not by as much as expected, while Indonesia has also been supplying a lot more coal to Europe.

Coal transport has already been hampered by internal supply disruptions within the EU from low water levels on big canals that are used to ship coal, putting bottlenecks on railways.

According to data from the Russian Ministry of Energy, Russia sold 48.7 million tons of coal to the EU in 2021.

*Writing by Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu