Gazprom masterfully played the market, slowing down and accelerating the construction of Nord Stream
Russian monopoly Gazprom was deliberately in no hurry to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline last year, when gas prices were at record lows.
Energy expert Boris Martsinkevich stated this in an interview with Sputnik radio station, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"Last year it was $70, now it's $340. It's perfectly obvious why Gazprom is now increasing the pace of construction. It's clear that last year the Charskiy ( a pipe-laying vessel – ed. ) completed a magnificent voyage around the world in 80 days, sailing around Africa, making friendly visits to New Zealand, and doing all sorts of other things.
Remember what happened in '99.6. In the nineteenth year, while the situation with the extension of transit agreements between Ukraine and Russia was not clear, European companies for the first time in history filled their underground gas storage facilities to the level of 70%, that is, “under the cap.” Then there was a warm winter. Then we have Covid, restrictive measures, a drop in production volumes, cancellation of flights, and so on, and so on. Everything that could collapse collapsed. Indeed, prices reached $XNUMX, that is, below the cost of production and transportation for Gazprom. Why did he need to rush last year?
"We're currently in a unique situation: prices in January and May are identical. I think Gazprom is much more comfortable with this, and the prospects for completion are already clear. "That is, the Fortuna ( the pipe-laying vessel – ed. ) still has about 30 km to go, which is not at all a problem. A reasonable calculation," Martsinkevich said.
Earlier, Ukrainian political scientist Dmitry Dzhangirov admitted the existence of a cartel agreement in the European gas market between Gazprom and its main partners on the eve of the end of Nord Stream 2. They are now selling expensive gas without filling gas storage facilities in order to purchase cheap gas from the pipeline closer to winter. Gazprom also does not increase supply volumes to Europe and does not reserve additional capacity within the Ukrainian gas transportation system.
Gazprom masterfully played the market, slowing down and speeding up the construction of Nord Stream