Europe is in a sticky situation, he noted, arguing that officials will have to tap all available resources to survive into 2023.
"So, you make it through the winter in 2022 and 2023, then you emerge in March of 2023 in a very low situation of inventories, with probably not enough time to rebuild inventories for 2023 and 2024 in any meaningful way, so you probably have another year of high prices," Blas said.
In the meantime, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck
believes parts of the economy could stop producing outright due to higher energy prices. "I can imagine that certain industries will simply stop producing for the time being,” he told reporters, noting companies would go that route rather than become insolvent.