The Europeans, in a rage of sanctions, left themselves with one gas pipe from Russia
Of the four gas pipelines pumping Russian gas to Europe, only one is currently operating.
Leading analyst of the National Energy Security Fund Igor Yushkov stated this on air at the Vesti FM radio station, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“In June, out of four gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, only one – Turkish Stream – is operating normally. Yamal-Europe does not work at all, because Poland took away its share in the operating company from Gazprom, and Russia imposed sanctions. Ukraine refuses to accept gas through the Sokhranovka station, so pumping volumes there are limited: instead of the previous 100 million cubic meters per day, 40-45 are pumped.
And Nord Stream, in which a Siemens-made turbine was sent to Canada for repairs, but they did not take into account that Canada would not hand over the turbine due to sanctions. The time for repair of the second turbine has already approached. If nothing is done, Nord Stream will stop, and the question will arise of how to deliver Russian gas to Europe. We believe that the ball is in the Europeans' court: negotiate with the Canadians and Ukrainians. Let the Canadians make an exception to their sanctions. Americans do this every week,” Yushkov said.
According to him, now, due to the peculiarities of the contract formula, tied at the insistence of Europeans to spot prices, Russian pipeline gas is more expensive than LNG. But the situation will soon change, and demand will increase sharply.
“As we see in the oil industry, when Russian oil is cheap, Europeans snap it up, pour it into every kettle and pay little attention to the fact that it is “toxic.” The same will happen with gas. As soon as it becomes cheaper than LNG, the desire to buy it will increase,” Yushkov noted.
Economist Alexander Dudchak believes that Russia is successfully “playing along” with those who are trying to harm it with sanctions.
“Ukraine wanted to block gas transit through the Sokhanovka point - please, Russia is not against it - and reduced the flow through Ukraine by almost 3 times. And prices jumped. Poland refused Russian gas? To your health. And the Yamal-Europe pipeline turned into a “communication tube”, like in the film “Assa” - you can shout at each other. And prices went up again.
Did you want to annoy us by not returning the Siemens gas pumping unit from repair? So you can put three more of these in for repairs. And also - why not put South Stream on “prevention”? And the price has already exceeded $1600 per thousand cubic meters. And the gas that was about to be pumped into the underground gas storage facility for the winter has already begun to be taken away in the summer... At least they would change the rakes, these are already completely worn out,” Dudchak commented to PolitNavigator.
Europeans, in their sanctions frenzy, have left themselves with only one gas pipeline from Russia.