Richard Quest in TVN24: Europe should brace for energy blackouts and recession

TVN24's anchor Michał Sznajder spoke with legendary host of CNN's "Quest Means Business" host Richard Quest. The two discussed global energy crisis, prices of raw materials and their availability.

Asked if he and other experts had seen an energy crisis like the current one ever before, Richard Quest replied: "No, we haven’t".

"And the reason why haven’t seen anything like this before is because in our lifetime there hasn’t been a war in Europe. Now, I suppose a parallel can made in the 1970s when the Arab oil producers restricted the embargo on oil and that sent price through the roof. But this is different because this is existential in a sense, and the ability of the oil markets to fluctuate to such a degree – oil and gas by that I mean, energy markets – is so tremendous and it’s having such damaging effects," Quest explained.

"And we’re not even in winter," he stressed.

Asked what kind of winter should we be bracing for, the CNN business expert said: "It’s gonna be hard. So much will depend on the weather".

He added that "Germany’s fuel stocks are at 80%, but that won’t enough to get through hard winter".

"To some extent, president Putin and Gazprom’s decision some weeks ago to restrict or shut down Nord Stream 1 ripped off the band-aid. It told us that we couldn’t expect Russian oil and gas in that sense, and so we’d have to find some other way. So, yes – it’s gonna be difficult," Quest said.

He also cautioned that the EU countries should expect to face a number of unusual situations like, for instance, energy blackouts. "You’re going to look at energy sharing or rationing, you’re going to look at increased costs – all of these things will affect Europeans and will help to push the European economy into recession," he warned.