PARIS: Europe faces a major shortfall of natural gas in 2023 if Russia completely cuts off deliveries but has measures it could take to avoid shortages, the International Energy Agency said Monday.

The Paris-based IEA, which advises energy-consuming nations on policy, estimated that Europe faces a potential shortfall of 23 billion cubic metres of natural gas if Russia completely halts deliveries and China’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rebound to 2021 levels.

That amounts to around 6.5 percent of the EU’s 2021 gas consumption.

Gas shortages: winter of discontent ahead

“The European Union has made significant progress in reducing reliance on Russian natural gas supplies, but it is not out of the danger zone yet,” the IEA’s executive director, Fatih Birol, was quoted as saying in a statement.

He said that circumstances would unlikely be as favourable in 2023 for European nations to fill up their gas reserves, which together with stepped-up purchases of LNG supplies appears to have staved off the risk of shortages for this winter despite Russia halting most gas deliveries.