Europe: The Conditions for a Cold Winter with High Gas Prices are Set

Work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed in September, but no gas will flow through it in the coming months. Germany stopped the procedure for its certification and as soon as it became known, energy prices increased by 18%. As Le Monde predicts, gas and electricity prices will remain high in the near future.

Moscow relied on the launch of Nord Stream 2 in the fall. At the time, the pipeline could supply another 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. But given the length of the approval process, it is unlikely to start by the end of winter. At the same time, it is expected that this season there will be a large consumption of resources for heating and electricity production.

"There is a real concern that if we have a cold winter, we could have power outages in Europe," said Jeremy Weir, head of Trafigura. According to him, in order to avoid maintaining high prices, Berlin would be better to speed up the process of issuing a Nord Stream 2 permit.

At the same time, Germany's decision to stop it came at a critical time when several factors came together: reserves are unusually small, there are infrastructure failures, winds are too weak for wind turbines to work, and in Germany and the United Kingdom there are increased methane consumption. In addition, increased demand for liquefied natural gas in Asia has led to higher prices in Europe.

At the same time, Gazprom is sparingly using gas from Siberia and the Arctic. He works under contracts, refuses to supply additional gas through the pipeline, which passes through Ukraine, so that Kiev does not receive more money for transit. Although Vladimir Putin insists that Russia does not use energy resources for political purposes, the Russian president has great power in the...