While Berlin shelved one pipeline linking Russia to Germany on Tuesday, the Ukraine crisis is prompting a broader rethink in Europe’s largest economy about its deep dependency on Russian gas.
The country gets a whopping 55 percent of its gas imports from Russia.
The bind that Germany has gotten itself into was illustrated dramatically on Tuesday when Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Berlin was halting Nord Stream 2 before it comes into operation, in response to Putin’s decision to recognize rebel territories of eastern Ukraine as independent and deploy Russian troops there.
Moscow swiftly warned Germans they could pay a high price for Berlin’s change of heart over the project, which both the current Social Democrat-led government and its predecessor under Angela Merkel defended for years even as European allies urged them to abandon it.
“Well. Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2.000 for 1.000 cubic meters of natural gas!” Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and prime minister who is now deputy chair of the country’s Security Council, tweeted in reaction to Scholz’s move. Just to make sure the message got through, he tweeted it in German too.
Reliance upon single nation for necessary energy is not a good strategic move. Nord 2 would up Germany’s reliance of Russia to 70% of total deliveries of gas to Germany. Changing source of power generation will take years if Germany takes that path. https://www.dw.com/en/economy-minister-says-germany-can-do-w…
Reliance upon single nation for necessary energy is not a good strategic move. Nord 2 would up Germany’s reliance of Russia to 70% of total deliveries of gas to Germany. Changing source of power generation will take years if Germany takes that path.
A Lithuanian government official was on Amanpour a couple nights ago. He observed that western Europe is getting a lesson on the hazard of being dependent on Russia for energy.
He said his country used to buy gas from Russia, and Russia was not doing them any favors on price. Lithuania built it’s own LNG terminal a few years ago, and is now free to buy nat gas from anyone in the world. Son of a gun, their gas cost now is lower than when it was piped from Russia.
Klaipeda liquefied natural gas floating storage and regasification unit terminal or Klaipeda LNG FSRU (Lithuanian: Klaipedos suskystintu gamtiniu duju terminalas) is a LNG terminal in the port of Klaipeda, Lithuania. It cost US$128 million to construct.[1] The project operator is Klaipedos Nafta.
The terminal started operating on 3 December 2014.[
Six years ago, Lithuania, like other Baltic countries, was completely dependent on the monopoly supply of natural gas through pipelines from Russia. Today, Lithuania has ensured security of natural gas supply, forgotten about the political component of Gazprom’s gas price, created a complete value chain in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, established itself on the global market as a reliable LNG terminal operator and ensures supply of natural gas to the region. The ‘broken ice’ enhances strategy consistency – to ensure the long-term operation of Klaipeda LNG terminal at least until 2044.
Natural gas only supplies 10-15% of German electrical power. The bulk of the consumption of natural is for heating in homes, businesses, and industry.
You still need gas for all that, and Germany’s gas (most of it) comes from Russia. Russia holds the energy stick. And the energy stick hits hard, and it hits globally. That’s why the former POTUS groveled in front of Putin and threatened to withdraw from NATO. He was terrified Putin would use the energy stick and was afraid to confront him. I’ve never seen a US president cower in fear before a foreign enemy like that.
You still need gas for all that, and Germany’s gas (most of it) comes from Russia. Russia holds the energy stick. And the energy stick hits hard, and it hits globally. That’s why the former POTUS groveled in front of Putin and threatened to withdraw from NATO. He was terrified Putin would use the energy stick and was afraid to confront him. I’ve never seen a US president cower in fear before a foreign enemy like that.
Germany meets about a quarter of its energy needs with natural gas, a share that will increase in the coming years as the country switches off its last three nuclear power plants and phases out the use of coal. About half of the natural gas used in Germany comes from Russia.
The government aims to end the use of all fossil fuels in Germany by 2045.
So for the next 20 years Germany will be switching from natural gas to electricity for heating homes, businesses and Industry. The Germans can do it, but they may need to burn more coal for the next 5-10 years.
It has been shown that Russian natural gas does not come with all the environmental benefits because the Russians have sloppy gas production and transport with huge quantities of methane leaks along the entire production and transport route to Germany. So burning coal is better than using Russian natural gas environmentally.
The bind that Germany has gotten itself into was illustrated dramatically on Tuesday when Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Berlin was halting Nord Stream 2 before it comes into operation…