France, Italy and Slovakia denounce partial and total reductions in exports that they attribute to a “political decision” by Moscow
Russia deals a new blow to the West with its best weapon: the closing of the gas tap. The president, Vladimir Putin, increases the tension with more reductions in his supply to the community countries, whose leaders call the action “blackmail”. One week after four months since Moscow invaded Ukraine, the war is being waged on land and also in the global market, where the Kremlin plays with the energy vulnerability of the European Union. Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark have suffered complete outages, while Germany, Austria and Italy have seen the flow severely reduced. France, for its part, no longer receives a single cubic meter.
Europe consumes an average of 40% of gas from Russia. The figure increases in cases such as Germany, which reaches 55%, and in Bulgaria, with up to 85%. Dependent France receives 17%, approximately. In this country since the beginning of the year the supply fell by 60% and now it has been reduced to zero. On Wednesday the physical flow between France and Germany was interrupted, as announced this Friday by the operator of the French network GRTgaz, who does not know the cause of the cut, although it takes place just when the company Gazprom considerably reduces the delivery to Berlin through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
However, the Government of Paris does not foresee any type of condition at the moment, largely due to the increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) up to 66%. In fact, GRTgaz confirmed that reserves are 56% covered.
Italy, which receives 40% of Russian gas, has also suffered a new energy blow. The firm Eni said this Friday that Gazprom has supplied only 50% of the “63 million cubic meters” requested. The setback comes a day after the head of the Government, Mario Draghi, accused Moscow of lying for blaming the reduction in European supply to maintenance work. “There is a political use,” he remarked.
Draghi refers to the reason Gazprom gave about the latest cut to EU countries. He argued that due to a breakdown he was forced to paralyze a team from the German group Siemens, present in the gas pipeline. Berlin, the main consumer of it, denounced that it is a “political decision” and a “pretext” of Putin for the war.
“Problem with the turbines”
Slovakia also criticized having received only 50% of the requested supply. Its energy supplier, the company SPP, has denounced in recent days that shipments have been gradually falling. On Tuesday they decreased by 10%, the next day by 15% and on Thursday more than 30%.
The Kremlin, for its part, denies that there is a strange background. “We only know that there is a problem with the turbines,” said the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov, due to the criticism received after reductions in the flow to Italy and especially to Germany, through Nord Stream. In the latter case, the cuts imply going from importing 167 million cubic meters per day to just 67. The situation is serious and the German Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, has called on the population to save energy. “Every kilowatt hour helps us,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, among the primary objectives of the West is to gradually end Russian dependence and have other energy options. In this sense, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, appealed this Friday for greater use of renewable energies. “Russia’s brutal and unprovoked assault on neighboring Ukraine has fueled a global energy crisis and heightened the need for long-term energy security,” he said.
“It’s our product, it’s our rules,” says Gazprom
From Gazprom they defend their position of increasingly reducing gas deliveries to Europe since the beginning of Western sanctions against Moscow as a result of the war in Ukraine, about to complete four months. “It’s our product, it’s our rules. We do not play by rules that we have not set,” said the company’s manager, Alexei Miller, who stated that “Russia is a reliable energy supplier for Russia’s friends.”
As for the “reason” for the latest cuts (a breakdown in equipment from the German group Siemens), Miller pointed out that there is no early solution to the damage. “The turbine is in the factory, Siemens can’t pick it up and the other turbines don’t fit,” he explained.
For this reason, the head of Gazprom dropped the possibility of using the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, whose construction has already been completed although it is not operational due to the sanctions imposed against Russia.
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