Reuters
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NOS News•yesterday, 22:05
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The Russian state-owned company Gazprom has reported to several customers that gas supplies can no longer be guaranteed due to ‘force majeure’. Among those customers are the major German gas importer Uniper, which has already big problemsand RWE, a German energy company that operates internationally.
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An anonymous source confirms to Reuters that it concerns deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. It is currently down for maintenance. There were already fears that Russia would use this meeting to further limit or stop the gas supply to Europe.
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Thirtieth move of the chess game
“I think it is too early to say hard that Nord Stream 1 will really close, but it is becoming increasingly likely,” said Jilles van den Beukel, energy analyst at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies. “Putin is playing a game of chess and out of forty moves, this is about the thirtieth. I can’t see inside his head, but it’s a pattern that less and less gas is coming out of Russia.”
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The appeal to force majeure, also called force majeure mentioned, is a way out in contracts to avoid having to meet obligations in exceptional circumstances. Gazprom may try in this way to hedge against possible compensation requirements if it no longer supplies gas.
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NOS
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Experts place little faith in this appeal to force majeure. “My firm belief is that if Russia wants to export, it really is possible,” says Van den Beukel. “For example, there are other pipelines that could take over, such as the Yamal pipeline.”
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Deliver less, earn more
About 40 percent of all gas that Europe imports arrives in Germany via Nord Stream 1 from Russia, from where it is transported further. Gazprom screwed up these deliveries lately already well backpartly because, according to the Russian state-owned company, there were problems with a turbine.
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In the meantime, Russia earns a lot from the gas supplies that still go to Europe. “At the moment, Putin gives about a quarter of the volume of 2019, for ten times the price,” says Van den Beukel. “So he earns 2.5 times more than in normal times.”
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Nevertheless, after the news about the appeal to force majeure, the gas price has not risen much further. “The market had already priced in to a large extent that the gas will no longer flow through the Nordstream 1 pipeline next Thursday, when maintenance is complete,” says Van den Beukel. Earlier today, the International Energy Agency warned that the code red is for Europe.
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