Brussels plans to increase its strategic reserve to 90% within a year and tests the possible veto of Gazprom from the European storage system
Wars are not only fought on the frontlines, and control of resources can be a more powerful weapon than tanks. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted Europe’s great energy dependency –which currently imports 40% of Moscow’s gas–. The EU wants to put an end to this relationship as soon as possible and, to this end, plans to increase its gas reserves to 90% by October. In addition, it contemplates considering these gas deposits as “strategic”, which would force suppliers that the EU considers “a threat to supply” to sell their storage capacity.
This declaration of intent is a clear message to the Russian giant Gazprom, a company controlled by the Putin regime and which has several open files for its “dubious conduct” in the European energy market. Among other issues, this winter, the company left its European reserves at 16% capacity, an excessively low level that clashes with that provided by other suppliers, which averaged 44%.
“We cannot cut off our relationship with Moscow overnight, we depend too much on Russian gas,” the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said last week. And those same words were heard again in the presentation of the European energy plan. The Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, assured that the EU plans to “reduce our vulnerability and become more energy independent”. “Putin’s war in Ukraine demonstrates the urgency of accelerating our energy transition,” added Timmermans.
More measures in April
The diversification of suppliers is fundamental in the European strategy. Brussels has maintained contacts with different countries so that natural gas reaches the continent through gas pipelines and gas carriers, which transport LNG – liquefied natural gas. Spain is a strategic partner in this matter, since it concentrates a large part of the European regasification plants, necessary to convert LNG into natural gas. As the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced last week, the Community Executive is now working to improve the interconnection of the peninsula with the rest of the continent in order to facilitate gas transport.
Brussels will also launch aid to curb the high costs of electricity. Among other things, it will “exceptionally” allow member states to regulate energy prices and redistribute profit income from the energy sector. They also offer the possibility that community countries can provide aid – in the short and long term – to reduce the exposure of households and companies to the volatility of the cost of energy.
In April the EU prepares additional legislative initiatives and considers formulas “to limit the contagion effect of gas on energy prices”. The initiative to unlink the price of gas from that of electricity was already raised by Spain in October of last year and has been gaining strength among the Twenty-seven as the cost of electricity pulverized one record after another. Yesterday it reached 700 euros per megawatt hour in the national market.
For the moment, the European recipe involves achieving greater energy efficiency, reducing consumption and promoting renewables. “They are cheaper and safer energies. We hope that by the end of this year Europe will generate 25% of its energy from renewables,” said Commissioner Simson. And Timmermans concluded: «We must use alternative energy or gas from other suppliers. Russian gas comes at too high a cost », she said in reference to the war in Ukraine.
Moscow threatens to cut off the supply of Nord Stream 1
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak threatened Germany by assuring that his country could stop supplying natural gas through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, in a “reciprocal” response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the US after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has not yet made any decision on the pipeline, which is operating “at full capacity,” Novak said in a televised speech on Monday night.
Regarding the energy blockade of the allied countries, the deputy prime minister assured that Russia has the capacity to sell oil to other regions. “If you want to refuse energy supplies from Russia, you can do whatever you want. We are prepared. We know where we can redirect this volume. The only question is who benefits from this and why is it necessary,’ he pointed out.
The infrastructure, managed by Russia’s Gazprom and Germany’s Wintershall, supplies nine million cubic meters of gas a year.