Page 10 - EurOil Week 41 2022

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Hungary and Serbia to build pipeline to

transport Russian oil to Serbia

CENTRAL EUROPE HUNGARY and Serbia agreed on October 10 to The southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline
build a pipeline to transport Russian Urals crude currently delivers oil to Hungary, Slovakia and
Serbia will lose to Serbia via the Druzhba oil pipeline, a Hungar- the Czech Republic.
alternative access to ian official confirmed on October 10. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic previ-
Russian oil this winter. The new pipeline was announced as Serbia ously announced on October 8 that Serbia had
faces an imminent cutoff of Russian oil supplies decided to build an oil pipeline with Hungary
that are currently transported by ship to Croatia and diversify its energy suppliers and routes.
then on to Serbia via the Janaf pipeline. New EU The construction of the 128-km oil pipeline,
sanctions on Russian oil deliveries by sea will which will partly run along the gas pipeline route
block that route from November. to Hungary, will be completed in two years and
“[Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic] and cost €100mn, he added.
[Hungarian] PM [Viktor] Orban have agreed This is part of a broader set of measures Bel-
to build an oil pipeline to Hungary. The new grade plans to take to ensure its energy security.
oil pipeline would enable Serbia to be supplied Hungary backed the latest package of sanc-
with cheaper Urals crude oil, connecting to the tions on Moscow, but with strong energy ties to
Friendship oil pipeline,” Orban’s international Russia it has repeatedly criticised the increas-
spokesman Zoltan Kovacs wrote on Twitter. ingly tough sanctions imposed by the bloc and
“At present, the country’s [Serbia’s] oil supply successfully lobbied for several extensions.
is largely via a pipeline through Croatia, but this Serbia, meanwhile, has been under pressure
is unlikely to be possible in the future because to join sanctions as an EU candidate country
of the sanctions that have been adopted,” Kovacs but has so far refused, citing its friendly ties with
added. Russia. ™

Nord Stream leaks: a catastrophe

for climate goals

EUROPE THE explosions on September 25 at the Nord beginning to be realised.
Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea off the Before the leak, meeting the Paris Climate
300,00 tonnes of Swedish and Danish coasts could create a climate Agreement’s goal of limiting the global tem-
methane was released catastrophe that is just beginning to be realised, perature rise to 1.5˚C would require meth-
into the atmosphere. although it offers rare opportunities to measure ane emissions to fall by 45% by 2030, the UN’s
the exact impact of methane emissions on the Global Methane Assessment said in 2021. Such
environment. a reduction would avoid nearly 0.3°C of global
Already dubbed the worst methane leak warming by 2045.
ever, the three explosions, which created three The Nord Stream methane leaks have the
holes in the two systems, which each consist of potential to cause chaos for efforts to reduce
two pipes, have released about 300,000 tonnes methane emissions over the next two decades,
of methane, causing a 700-metre-wide pool of and could increase the already high danger of
bubbling water in the Baltic Sea. failing to meet net zero by 2050.
The explosions, which the Ukrainian govern-
ment immediately blamed on Russia, while the Explosions
German government suggested sabotage, have The explosions took place at a depth of 80-90
created large releases of methane, the scientific metres just outside Danish and Swedish terri-
name for natural gas. torial waters. This means that sophisticated and
The danger is that methane, over a period of advanced underwater technology, or even a
20 years, is up to 80 times more dangerous than submarine, would have been required.
CO2 in terms of global warming, although after While Germany and the EU pointed the
20 years it becomes less dangerous than CO2. finger at Russia, the Kremlin denied any
The leak will make it more difficult for responsibility, pointing to explicit threats by
Europe, and indeed the world, to meet cli- US President Joe Biden and others ahead of the
mate change goals, although the exact effects war that the US would shut down Nord Stream
of the released gas on the environment are just 2 if Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian media also

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