Russia’s Gazprom said Monday that it could potentially ship gas to Europe via an undamaged line on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which has never made deliveries after Berlin paused the project around the time Russia invaded Ukraine.
Both Nord Stream pipelines came under attack last week, and explosions caused major leaks that Gazprom said had stopped by Monday. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 each have a pair of lines, and Gazprom said that both lines of Nord Stream 1 were damaged.
But the Russian state gas company said that the Nord Stream 2’s line “B” was not damaged and that it would prepare to deliver gas through it if a decision in that regard was made.
“If a decision is made to start deliveries through Nord Stream 2’s line B, natural gas will be pumped into the pipeline after the integrity of the system has been checked and verified by supervisory authorities,” Gazprom said.
Receiving gas through the undamaged line of Nord Stream 2 could give Germany and other European countries some relief from the energy crisis. But the move would likely not be approved by the EU as it is preparing new sanctions on Russia despite the soaring energy prices that Europeans are facing.
The US has long opposed Nord Stream 2 and tried to stop the pipeline’s construction with sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Nord Stream explosions provide a “tremendous opportunity” to wean Europe off Russian gas.
At this point, there’s no evidence that the US was involved in the Nord Stream sabotage, but there are reasons to suspect Washington as it certainly has the motive. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden vowed to put an end to Nord Stream 2, and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland made a similar threat.
GOOD
Too late Gazprom, that EU market is forever gone. Try survive by selling cheap gas to China and India. Good luck with that.
Russia is already selling gas to other countries, Gazprom has been making to much money, Putin wanted to put a windfall tax on Gazprom.
Yes, of course. Whatever you say.
I don’t imagine that any of the EU countries will be asking for your permission if they choose to purchase from Gazprom.
The EU has indeed been very good at shooting itself in the foot. When these countries finally get enough alternatives in place to function normally, they will find that China still has the cost advantage in terms of energy, and the India has also become more competitive.
China and India also have customers who are experiencing affluence for the first time. The value of their markets is huge, and these markets can be closed to unfriendly countries as easily as the US closed access to SWIFT.
China and India only buy a fraction of what EU consumes and at significantly reduced price. If you don’t believe Russia lost that market, it’s because you’ve been watching too much RT news.
Like I said before, Good luck with that, Gazprom.
That “significantly reduced price” may spur economic/industrial development that increases the consumption, though. Neither China nor India are short on people to work. If they can inexpensively power new factories, etc., their economies are likely to develop faster on the industrial end. Every cloud has silver linings.
Your point… While conceptually feasible, won’t work, IMO.
It’s not about the people, it’s about what people want and/or need.
Unlike USA & EU, the China – India market, uses far less electricity and has far less cars (oil). It also relies more on coal as they are the top 2 coal consumers in the world.
I’m not sure they are even considering changing their entire energy infrastructure to be fueled by Gas and/or oil. That may outweigh the benefits of transitioning, IMO.
AW is behind the curve here … This was reported after the initial damage to Nord Stream 2.
Reuters reported last week that “ Russia could export gas to Europe through one of the idle Nord Stream 2 pipelines that was the only of Nord Stream’s four lines still capable of working following a mysterious attack, analysts said on Wednesday.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/single-line-nord-stream-2-can-still-export-gas-analysts-say-2022-09-28/
I missed that. Do not go to Reuters that often.
It was in several articles I read. That just happened to be the first one I found when I googled lol
So what?
It’s amusing that everyone is reacting to this as if it’s mind blowing breaking news. Maybe they should try getting their news from other sources besides just AW.
Very smart of Russia. Two lines.
SHHHH !
Not so loud !
You know who might find out
“Gazprom Says Undamaged Nord Stream 2 Line Could Ship Gas to Europe The Nord Stream 2 has never delivered gas as the project was paused by Germany around the time Russia invaded Ukraine”
Russia needs to deploy Baltic naval assets and destroy an threat to the remaining pipeline no matter where it is from!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-03/gazprom-ready-to-ship-gas-via-shelved-nord-stream-2-pipeline
The vaunted US Navy screwed up. (Or perhaps they enlisted the Polish Navy’s “help”.)
In the murky depths of the Baltic Sea they planted their explosives to blow up the ***FOUR*** pipes of the NS1 & NS2 gas pipelines. (You didn’t know there were four pipes, did you? Neither did I.) But they appear to have screwed up and placed two of the explosive packages on line A of the NS2 pipes, leaving the other pipe — line B — with no explosive charge, and subsequently ***NO DAMAGE***. Line B is therefore ***READY TO GO*** with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year … which for comparison is 50% of total capacity of NS1’s lines A & B, and 2.75 times the capacity of the newly-opened Norway-to-Poland gas pipeline. As you may recall, NS1 was recently reduced to 20% capacity, and then shut down completely.
Gazprom has lowered the pressure in line B, will conduct an inspection, and then Germany can just give the go ahead, flip the switch, and be back to 50% of the previous gas flow rate.
The Big Bad US Empire thought it would f*ck Germany, but they screwed the pooch.
So Vladimir, go get ’em. Poke your Russkie finger in the eye of the vaunted super-warriors of the Neocons and the US Navy. They couldn’t even get their sabotage right!
That confirms is was the Poles. Blinken has to be p*ssed. The “opportunity” seems to have disappeared. Now, if there is an attempt to blow up the rest, I would guess there may be a encounter with Russian forces.
Just because YOU didn’t know it doesn’t mean that the saboteurs and many other people weren’t aware that each Nod Stream had two pipelines. There are tons of articles indicating that there were two pipelines each for Nord Stream 1 and 2. It’s literally on the Wikipedia page (even well before the sabotage). There are dozens of articles that mentioned the dual pipelines for NS2.
Whoever sabotaged it either 1) was stunningly uneducated about the pipeline (which I find unlikely), or 2) deliberately left one pipe undamaged.
Of course the US Navy knew there were two pipes each for NS1 & NS2. In the murk and currents they just screwed up.
frankly, the fact that one of them was left operational makes it look worse for Russia as the potential saboteur. They can create a panic in the EU over energy, then say “oh wait, one of the lines is still operational! Lucky you!”
I prefer not to insult you, but everyone on the planet knows that the US did it … and now, that they screwed it up.
Santa Claus isn’t real. The Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy aren’t real. “Russia! Russia! Russia!” likewise.
It is the go-to brain fart explanation for US flag-draped true-believers.
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” – William Casey, CIA Director 1981
Look in the mirror.
I’m sure the facts will come out in the end. Whatever they are. And no, “everyone on the planet” does not know the US did it.
But the US warning about potential sabotage before the actual sabotage would be a very strange move.
I should have said “everyone not saturated in US Empire-of-Lies Flavor Kool-Aid”.
And no, the facts will not come out in the end, they will be covered up and/or falsified — “incubator babies” etc. The fix is in.
As to your complaint (below in response to Red Douglas): “… commenters here who dismiss ANYTHING pro or even neutral toward Ukraine based on the source by saying, “That’s just MSM lies!” ”
“Everyone knows” that the US/UK has total dominance in the propaganda war. The MSM’s professional liars get paid handsomely to lie. What’s your excuse … for believing them?
For any reasonable person the default position should be “The US did it. If you think otherwise, show me your evidence to the contrary.”
That one was left operational doesn’t really implicate anyone. In addition to the scenario you describe, there’s also the “we destroyed one of your pipelines … would you like the other one destroyed too?” scenario that could point in either direction.
The most likely conclusion, so far as I can tell, is that the US or a proxy did it.
LOL Meanwhile, the EU continues to commit suicide…
EU Pushes For More Sanctions Which Will Come Back To Bite It
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/10/crazy-sanctions.html
The idiots are going to try to implement an oil price cap. This is doomed to failure, like the rest of the sanctions they’ve tried. In response, Saudi Arabia has cut production, which is likely to drive the oil price, previously around $83 in September, to $100. China and India will take over the oil shipping market, Bernhard predicts.