Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Related to Nord Stream 2?
Russia turns off gas through the Yamal pipeline
Nord Stream 2 is becoming a controversial issue in the traffic light coalition, the conflict in Ukraine increases the pressure to act. Now Russia turns off the gas tap on the Yamal pipeline in the middle of winter. According to the Kremlin, the delivery stop to Germany has nothing to do with politics.
In the middle of winter, Russia stopped its gas supplies to Germany through the Yamal-Europe pipeline. After the delivery had already decreased significantly in the past few days and was completely idle for a short time, the gas was pumped in the opposite direction – from Germany to Poland. As the German network operator Gascade explained, the gas from the Mallnow compressor station in Brandenburg will be piped east for the rest of the day. The gas price has recently risen sharply due to the economic recovery after the corona shutdowns.
Russia said reversing gas supplies was a purely commercial decision and had nothing to do with politics and the dispute over the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. From Poland it was said that the Russian gas supplier Gazprom was fulfilling its contractual obligations. The deliveries to the east had been commissioned by Poland. Initially, no comment was received from Gazprom. In the past few months, less gas than usual came to Germany via the Yamal pipeline. At the beginning of November the gas had already been pumped in the opposite direction for a few days.
The Yamal-Europe gas pipeline runs from the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia through Russia, Belarus and Poland to Germany. It was completed in 1999 and has been in operation since the mid-2000s with a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters per year. There is also the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which has been pumping gas directly from Russia to Germany through underwater pipelines for around ten years. The controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which also runs through the Baltic Sea, has been completed but has not yet been approved. It could go into operation next summer.
Critics of Nord Stream 2 fear that Germany is heavily dependent on Russian gas. This is viewed critically against the background of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Germany and the EU are calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the region. Politicians accuse Russia of delaying gas supplies to Europe because of the political conflict. Russia and Gazprom reject this.