Russia burns the gas rather than sending it to Germany
Russia is burning natural gas at the Portovaya plant near the Finnish border, dramatically reducing gas flows to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline, according to an analysis by Rystad Energy shared with BBC News on Friday.
The plant north-west of St. Petersburg is burning about $ 10 million worth of natural gas a day – gas that would otherwise have gone to Germany.
The Portovaya plant is close to the compressor station of the same name from which the Nord Stream route to Germany starts. Since June, Russia has significantly reduced flows through Nord Stream, first to 40% of the pipeline's capacity and then to just 20% of Nord Stream's capacity after a ten-day regular maintenance period ending on 22 July.
At the same time, analysts, residents and satellite images have detected and seen an increase in heat from the Portovaya plant. The researchers told the BBC that they believe the increased heat from the plant is the result of gas flaring – the burning of excess gas. This gas released into the air without burning would be dangerous for any explosions and for the environment.
"They have no other place to sell the gas, so they have to burn it," the German ambassador to the UK told BBC News, commenting on the possible reason for the significant increase in flaring.
According to Dr. Jessica McCarty, a satellite data expert at the University of Miami in Ohio, “Since June we have seen a huge spike, which has never gone away. It remained very abnormally high, ”he told BBC News.
Meanwhile, gas prices in Europe hit new records this week after Russia's Gazprom said last week that it would cut off all supplies through Nord Stream to Germany for three days. The reason for the three-day suspension of gas flows through the pipeline would be due to maintenance work at the Trent 60 gas compression station, which would be carried out with Siemens, according to Gazprom.
It is clear that while those who have gas can afford to burn it, those who do not have it cannot generate it from nothing, especially without changing the internal regulations relating to extraction. The Russian bet turns out to be more and more successful every day, especially since on the other side there is no strategy, but they are a group of stunned ducks.
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The article Russia burns gas rather than sending it to Germany comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-russia-brucia-il-gas-piuttosto-che-mandarlo-in-germania/ on Sat, 27 Aug 2022 14:53:34 +0000.