Europe’s gas supply once again hinges on one firm

Power play: An employee inspects processing and refining structures at an oil refinery in Europe. Extended outages and Equinor’s handling of maintenance challenges, both of which affect energy prices, have had ripple effects across the continent. — Reuters

LONDON: When the world’s top gas traders met in late April at a canal-side hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam, the atmosphere was business-as-usual: coffee, croissants and wrangling over deals for the upcoming winter.

Then came news of a leak at Europe’s biggest liquefied natural gas plant, located above the Arctic circle in Norway.