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A related report from the BBC (published a few days ago): Europe gas prices: How far is Russia responsible? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58888451 https://www.bbc
by vanilla-almond 5y ago
A related report from the BBC (published a few days ago):
Europe gas prices: How far is Russia responsible? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58888451 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58888451
Some key points in the BBC article:
- Russia supplies about 40% of the EU’s natural gas imports. Most of the rest comes from Norway and Algeria.
- Russia sends gas to Europe through several main pipelines - such as the Nord Stream, the Yamal-Europe and the Brotherhood (see the map in the article).
- Overall, Russian gas exports to Europe have been decreasing over the last couple of years - down 32% in February this year compared to February 2020. One factor - during the pandemic - has been falling demand as economic activity shrank. Stocks of gas across Europe have been depleted, which in turn is driving up prices.
- Gazprom, Russia's majority state-owned energy company, supplies gas to Europe under two different arrangements: 1. Long-term contracts often lasting from 10 to 25 years. 2. "Spot" deals or one-off purchases for a fixed amount of gas.
- It is understood that Gazprom met its obligations to European buyers last year under these contracts.
- "Spot" sales don't appear to be happening in any significant quantity, going by data from Gazprom's own electronic sales platform.
- The International Energy Agency's executive director, Fatih Birol, has accused Russia of reducing gas supplies to Europe for political purposes.
- Gas storage across Europe is well below the 10-year average, with levels currently at about 75% of storage capacity, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data.
- croes 5y ago>This leads to the conclusion that Gazprom is supplying the volumes... under its long-term contracts - but it is not providing additional volumes beyond those contracts," says Jack Sharples, of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Question is, was gas ordered? I doubt anyone delivers without order. According to Gazprom the orders came only february 2nd.
- another_why 5y agoIf I remember right, they refused to sign a new contract with Russia and tried to buy it spot as a matter of "economy"
- wukerplank 5y agoGazprom runs underground storages in Western Europe which they didn't refill before Winter 2021/22. Back then it was speculated to be used to hike prices, now we know it's more about leverage. https://www.ft.com/content/576a96f7-e41d-4068-a61b-f74f2b2d3b81 https://www.ft.com/content/576a96f7-e41d-4068-a61b-f74f2b2d3...
- croes 5y agoThey own the storage but injection and withdrawal volumes are carried out by the customers. Still the same,no order, no delivery.
- nabla9 5y agoEU is improved LNG capacity (LNG terminals and LNG regasification capacity) as a policy. LNG imports will take over Russian gas over medium term. After regasification the gas goes to same pipes. Biden has discussed with US energy companies on how to get them into providing LNG capacity to European needs.
- DeathArrow 5y agoWouldn't LNG from US be much more expensive than gas from Russia? Why would European countries pay for it?
- rosndo 5y agoBecause they’d rather depend on an ally than an openly hostile state. Because the US would massively subsidize LNG exports to EU in order to support their allies?
- ezconnect 5y ago
- rosndo 5y agoHa ha, funny joke. Where are the 100k+ US troops on Ukrainian borders?
- beeboop 5y agoThe US has caused more death in the past 60 years from military intervention than all other countries combined
- rosndo 5y agoAh, nonsensical whataboutism. How is this relevant to a conversation about Russian actions in Europe? As far as I understand the US still remains on another continent.
- jseliger 5y agoEurope gas prices: How far is Russia responsible? Another way of framing this is "Europe gas prices: How far is Europe responsible?" https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/what-the-u-s-can-learn-from-germany-s-nuclear-power-plant-shutdowns https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/what-the-u-s-can-learn... | https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/01/bit-context-trump-nato.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2017/01/bi...