Joining us now to discuss this some more. David string At Bloomberg's Asia Energy Team leader, So, David, in terms of intervention from the EU, what tools are on the table and how effective might they be? Wonderful. It's been quite an extraordinary weekend, I guess in the energy sector in Europe. We've seen a number of interventions already and
as you mentioned, there are more measures being considered. Um there should be a meeting, an emergency meeting of energy ministers of the EU on Friday, and according to a draft document that's been seen by Bloomberg News, that's going to propose a number of things, you know, it'll it'll suggest gas price caps, potentially a suspension of power derivatives trading, and also potentially a windfall tax on profit, all of that aimed at trying to stem the gains and gas
prices that we're seeing as a result of the you know, the choking off of supply from Russia. Also an attempt to boost liquidity of utility to a really struggling um, you know, and ultimately drive down those costs for consumers, for households in Europe who were were suffering now and potentially going to suffer much more as we really get
into the most severe of the winter months. So there's europe wide efforts and then there's also some countries individually, like we saw from from Germany with sixty five billion dollars of of relief. Are there any other moves like that coming from individual countries of note? Quite? Yeah, as you as you mentioned there that sixty five billion dollar package announced over the weekend from Germany that that you know, triggered seemingly in response to the Russian move to the
choke off supply through that nord Stream pipeline. We also saw Nordic authorities they moved specifically to aid utilities that are struggling with collateral requirements. Authorities they're saying there's a risk of a Lehman moment for those utilities. So yes, we're definitely seeing individual countries take take action, you know, and and don't be surprised if we see something from from the Czech Republic too. There were people out in
the streets protesting there this weekend. A real reminder of the kind of pressures on the politicians to act. Yeah, Lord stream closed for maintenance, what is that maintenance? And EU leaders aren't buying that story, Are they absolutely not? No. I mean the European Council president Sear Michelle. You know, he was saying this weekend, you know, essentially calling it what it was, which was the use of energy as
a as a weapon. Yes, you know, gas Prom, the Russian supplier, has has put forward an argument that there's yet another piece of maintenance that's required. But you know, even even the company involved in the company that would be carrying out that maintenance, Siemens, has said that there's no actual reason, there's no factual basis on which they to justify them cutting off that flow of gas. So, um, it does look like, you know, a deliberate move by Moscow just to to use its ability to flex the
energy supply to put pressure on Europe. I know this is not your beat, but we're seeing quite a lot of weakness in the euro this morning, which might suggest that the crisis is going to cause the e c B to be less aggressive with with raising rates. Um. So I just want to kind of get your feel on how how difficult this is for people in Europe, because we had a guest on in the last hour who said, actually, the balance sheets are pretty strong for
Europeans and that they may fare better than what people fear. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I think what we've got to expect is if this energy crunch intentifies, you know, if that's going to put further pressure on these economies, if it's going to continue to fuel that cost a living crisis, then absolutely that's going to put more pressure on the
Euro um. You know, and and certainly the move by Russia this weekend to shut off those key gas taps, absolutely that will put more pressure on We will see a response to that from the e c B. Um, you know, I guess we'll you know, we'll have to wait and look for that. But this is not a positive for the euro putting energy crisis. We haven't talked about the OPE plus meeting which starts today or what
are the dynamics that opis balancing ahead of this. I mean quite interesting really, and you know, I think a lot of the focus UM in the past few months has been on supply. It's been on you know, the ability of those OPEC plus countries to bring on more production. UM. As you say, OPEC and allies including Russia, they're going to meet later later Monday. UM. I think We're just saying that the sort of balance of dynamics shift, A lot of focus on China again, a lot of focus
on the impact of those lockdowns in China. You know, you've you've just been sort of talking about those yourselves. You know, more restrictions in place and ching do covering millions of people. Is that going to eat into demand again? Are you going to see weakness in demand for oil and how is that balanced out by these these plans
to bring on more production. I think, you know, I think for this meeting, a majority of p will think that plus could sort of stand pat But yeah, it's it's an interesting shift in dynamics, and I think we're very much back to focus on demand rather than supply. All right, David, out of time. I do think another shift is, um the weaponization of energy. That's something that we hadn't really seen all that much of up until um,
the sanctions on Russia and Russia's response. Anyway, David, thanks very much for being with us here live on