After the explosion at the Gazprom plant, Europe suffocates without gas

Gennady Charodeyev

Many analysts agree that this behavior of gas prices is unusual in summer time. Exchange prices, as a rule, rise during the period of greatest consumption - in winter, and fall in summer. However, this summer was an exception to the rule.

The enterprise itself, where the fire broke out on August 5, is located almost 30 kilometers from Novy Urengoy. It is part of a subsidiary of Gazprom - Gazprom-Pererabotka. The plant processes hydrocarbons - the so-called "unstable gas condensate" at the fields of the Nadym-Pur-Taz region.

The fire was extinguished within 24 hours, there were no casualties. Workers told reporters about a powerful explosion, which was felt even by residents of remote villages of Yamal. Apparently, we should expect some significant damage to the ecology of the region. According to preliminary data, the explosion resulted in huge emissions of combustion products of gas condensate, gas and oil.

Interestingly, Gazprom's Corporate Security Service began looking for those who posted a video of the explosion in Novy Urengoy on the networks. Immediately after the emergency, Gazprom-Pererabotka employees were prohibited from disseminating any information about the incident without the consent of the corporation's management.

What caused the explosion has yet to be established. However, an employee of the plant drew attention to the fact that some of the plants were built in the 1980s. Most of the pipelines, tanks and containers remained from Soviet times and were in operation. As the press service of Gazprom told Novye Izvestia, a serious investigation of the causes of the accident has begun.

In the meantime, it turned out that as a result of the explosion and fire, structural elements of the plant building and equipment, located on an area of almost 2 thousand square meters, were damaged. km.

After reports of an accident at the plant, gas pumping through the Yamal-Europe pipeline halved to 1 million cubic meters per hour. Within a day, the volume increased slightly - up to 1.5-1.6 million cubic meters. m. At the same time, gas prices rose in Euroop, notes the American agency Bloomberg.

Later, news agencies spread around the world: Gazprom began to urgently take gas from underground storage facilities in Russia and the EU. The fact is that the process of stabilizing the condensate produced together with natural gas is inextricably linked with gas production. Due to the fire, the plant completely stopped receiving raw materials - this led to a decrease in Gazprom's gas production by tens of millions of cubic meters per day. That is why the company had to get into the gas "bins" of Europe and Russia.

Experts of the International Energy Agency scare the Europeans: “The rise in natural gas prices means that the prices for electricity supply to industry and the production of petrochemicals will rise, and this, in turn, will shake the entire world economy and inflame fears of inflation. For consumers, this will come back to haunt the rise in the price of monthly bills for electricity and gas. It will become more expensive to turn on the washing machine, take a hot shower and cook dinner. " Here, they say, look what Putin is doing.

Meanwhile, in Europe, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau, gas storage facilities are practically empty. The task of restoring strategic reserves after a cold winter is complicated by the shortage of liquefied gas on the world market. Imports to Europe remain 20% below last year, including due to the pandemic and lockdowns.

The supply of "blue fuel" to foreign buyers from Russia has decreased, while demand has risen sharply. At the same time, according to Gazprom, its production in the first half of 2021 increased by 18.4%, and exports - by 23%. What's the matter here?

A number of experts do not exclude that the Russian monopoly, speaking of problems with supplies, is hinting at the fact that the West should stop interfering with the completion of the construction of Nord Stream 2. Meanwhile, Gazprom can simply outplay itself. Its European partners will begin to prioritize liquefied fuels sourced from the United States, Qatar or Australia. Thus, Russia runs the risk of destroying its own share in the most important market for it.

“In Europe, fuel prices have skyrocketed, but it began even before the accident at the plant in Novy Urengoy”, - said Mikhail Krutikhin, an oil and gas industry analyst, to Novye Izvestia. - It should be borne in mind that an extremely difficult situation with gas has developed recently in South and Southeast Asia. For example, in China, Japan and South Korea, the demand for liquefied natural gas has skyrocketed. This happened, firstly, because of the programs for filling the reserve storages, and secondly, because of the "climatic strikes". Due to the extreme heat, for example, more electricity was required for the air conditioners. The global market reacted immediately. After an increase in demand for LNG, natural gas flows went mainly to Asia, where prices for "blue fuel" soared. Thus, in some EU countries, there was a shortage of gas, which immediately caused a rise in prices on the European market.

Economists argue that today there is no global gas market, but there are large regional markets and their mutual influence is gradually increasing. The world has come to the point where two markets, European and Asian, are developing a large supermarket of the Eurasian continent. Thus, prices on European sites are becoming increasingly dependent on prices on Asian sites. Europeans have to compete more and more for the gas that goes to Asia.

- Gazprom in advance, even before the accident in Novy Urengoy, somewhat reduced gas pumping through Nord Stream-1, as well as in the Ukrainian direction, and for a short time suspended pumping along the Belarus-Poland-Germany route. Seeing that prices began to skyrocket even without it, Gazprom took advantage of the situation and decided to hold on to LNG and thus push prices up, suggested Mikhail Krutikhin.

Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, believes that at some point Gazprom reinsured itself and reduced pumping through individual pipes, primarily within the country. But then he restored this pumping in certain volumes, although not completely.

“This means”, - expert explained to Novye Izvestia, - “that the gas transmission system is not damaged and Gazprom will be able to fulfill all its contractual obligations. If necessary, the gas supply will be increased through Bovanenkovo, another gas production center in Yamal. By the way, the transit of gas through the territory of Ukraine in the days after the accident in Yamal did not decrease, which also indicates the absence of critical moments in the actions of Gazprom.

According to Igor Yushkov, it is important to take into account that the United States and its allies continue to actively develop the thesis: everything that happens on the gas market is a shortage, high prices are all Russian blackmail of Europe in order to satisfy its political ambitions. According to the expert, this is the last attempt by the opponents of Nord Stream 2 to ruin the unique project.

As reported by the Prime agency with reference to the data of the German gas transmission operator Gascade, by the morning of August 10, gas pumping through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline was restored. Gas supplies at the entrance to the gas transmission system of Germany alone increased by 22% and reached 1.8 million cubic meters per hour.