Europe has been forced to shore up its energy supplies since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The continent has averted a worst-case scenario for this winter. Now, it’s racing to build new liquified natural gas infrastructure ahead of the next one.

Europe raced to shore up its energy supplies in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it appears to have averted a worst-case scenario this winter — largely thanks to liquified natural gas.

For years, Europe was heavily dependent on Russian pipeline gas. But when Russia attacked Ukraine, and Europe could no longer count on those gas flows, it pivoted hard to LNG, a flexible energy source that comes largely from the United States, Qatar, Australia and Algeria.

Europe has successfully filled its gas storage capacity to 95%, which means all should be OK this winter. But next winter is a different story.

Because Europe was so reliant on Russia, it has limited LNG import capacity. European countries are scrambling to build new infrastructure to be able to import more of it.

CNBC by Julianna Tatelbaum, January 5, 2023