(Bloomberg) -- Europe will have to wait until later this decade before seeing any relief from high natural gas prices, according to Citigroup Inc.

“It will be somewhere between 2025 and 2027 that we’ll see the prices in Europe coming back to where they were at the beginning of 2021,” said Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup Inc., in a Bloomberg Television interview. That’s because it’ll take time to replace lost natural gas from Russia.  

Europe is in the grip of its worst energy crisis in 50 years as Russia has slashed gas deliveries in retaliation for sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine. Soaring energy prices have exacerbated the squeeze on consumers and pushed economies to the brink of recession, putting the continent at risk of a deepening crisis as winter approaches. 

“It would not be surprising if they turn back the flows on natural gas as we got to the end of the injection season in Europe,” Morse added, referring to Russia, noting that they will soon run out of markets to sell product. “Russia will make a lot of money out of it.”

European gas futures are more than four times the price a year ago, according to ICE data.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.