Russia Cuts Gas To Much Of Europe, What We Know – The HuffPost

RUSSIA – Tap closed in Poland, Bulgaria and Finland, greatly reduced flow to Germany, Austria and Italy, and no more cubic meters to France: Europeans denounce Vladimir Putin’s gas blackmail, while the continent wants to take advantage of the summer to fill its stocks. In the fourth month of the war in Ukraine, Moscow presses where it hurts and plays on the energy vulnerability of Europeans, 40% of the gas burned usually comes from Russia. These proportions were even higher in the East: 55% for Germany, or 85% in Bulgaria. need to heat buildings. But the cuts come as countries must take advantage of the summer to fill their reserves, with a target of at least 80% by November in the European Union. France and Germany, among others, want to avoid panic and reassure their citizens: the stocks of the two countries are increasing and are at 56%. The EU is on average at 52%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, which is better than this time last year, but below the previous two years. “Russians have been using gas as a weapon for a long time” The decline deliveries will in any case drive up prices, which will be expensive for manufacturers, especially in Germany. The benchmark price for natural gas in Europe, the Dutch TTF, jumped to almost 130 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Friday, against around 100 euros on Wednesday… and around 30 euros a year ago. have been using gas as a weapon for a long time,” Thierry Bros, professor at Sciences Po Paris, told AFP. “The Kremlin uses the principle of uncertainty, one day something and the next day something else, to look at our unity and to stretch the commodity market and drive up prices.” On Friday, the manager of the French transmission network, GRTgaz, announced that it would no longer receive Russian gas by pipeline since June 15. This gas passed through a single interconnection point with Germany. France was counting on Russia for around 17% of its gas, which can arrive by gas pipeline (the vast majority) or in liquid form by LNG tankers. The flows through this gas pipeline had already been considerably reduced, but they have now fallen to zero. “We have the means to meet our gas needs thanks to the gas deliveries we receive from other countries, our LNG terminals and our constituted stocks”, however, told AFP the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. LNG purchaseThe interruption comes as Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, this week reduced gas deliveries to Germany by 60%, via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. “There should be no illusions, we We are in a showdown with Putin,” Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy and climate minister, said Thursday. “This is how dictators and despots act.” The consequences are more serious for France’s neighbors, and not just Germany: Italy depends 40% on Russia and it will only receive on Friday 50% of Russian gas requested by its national company Eni. The head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, who was Thursday in kyiv, denounced a “political use of gas”. Officially, Gazprom claimed technical reasons for Nord Stream 1 equipment, but European leaders do not believe it. To fill its underground reserves, Europe is therefore looking all over the place for non-Russian gas sources, by gas pipeline, but above all in liquid form, with liquefied natural gas (LNG). France has four terminals which are used to receive LNG arriving by LNG carriers and plans to install others. It has already greatly increased its LNG purchases since the start of the war and its terminals are close to their technical maximum, according to GRTgaz. To the point that France has become the biggest buyer of Russian LNG in the world, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports