Page 10 - EurOil Week 40 2022

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

“The large-scale ‘gas leak’ at Nord Stream 1 is operations.
nothing more than a terrorist attack planned by The leak of so much methane into the atmos-
Russia and an act of aggression towards the EU,” phere will exact a heavy toll on the environment,
wrote Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo as methane is fifty times more damaging than
Podoliak on Twitter. CO2, say experts. The Danes calculated that the
Moscow has blamed the US, pointing to climate impact of the gas leak corresponds to
explicit threats by US President Joe Biden about a third of Denmark’s total climate impact
and others ahead of the war that the US in one year, but poses no health or other risk to
would shut down the pipeline if Russia the population.
invaded Ukraine, irrespective of its Euro- No gas was flowing through either of the
pean partners’ wishes. Russia has called a pipelines. Nord Stream 2 was never certified
UN emergency meeting where it will pres- and never went into operation; Nord Stream 1
ent its evidence. has not been working for a month after Russian
According to a Russian media report, a US state-owned gas giant Gazprom shut it down for
helicopter that was loitering over that section of repairs.
the pipeline could be involved in the leaks in the However, the removal of Nord Stream from
Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines. the picture entirely has spooked markets, as it
“The MH-60R Strike Hawk multi-role destroys the possibility of resuming deliveries
helicopter circled over the Baltic Sea for nine of gas in the depth of winter if an energy crisis
hours – from 19:30 Moscow time on Sunday, becomes acute and raises fresh questions about
September 25 to 4:30 Moscow time on Mon- energy security in Germany and Europe. Gas
day, September 26; about 250 kilometres from prices jumped 20% a day after the attack on the
the Danish island of Bornholm, where the gas pipeline was announced.
leak was detected,” wrote the internet newspa- In theory some gas deliveries could be
per lenta.ru on Wednesday, citing data from restarted via the undamaged Nord Stream 2
Flightradar. string, but that would need the pipeline to be
However, others point out that the helicop- certified, which experts see to be politically
ters are also routinely used in anti-submarine impossible in the current climate. ™

Enagas mulls taking stake in Albanian

gas grid operator

SPAIN SPAIN’S Enagas is considering purchasing a faults in its design. In March 2021, Albania’s gov-
stake in the national gas transmission operator ernment agreed with ExxonMobil and US LNG
Albania lacks gas of Albania, which is looking to expand the role vessel owner Excelerate on potentially building
infrastructure but wants of gas in its energy system. a regasification terminal in Vlora to supply the
the fuel to play a role in The two companies signed a cooperation station, once it undergoes improvements. But
its energy mix. agreement on October 4 during talks in Tirana, they are yet to take a final investment decision
Albania’s capital. Under the deal, Enagas “stated on the project.
its interest in analysing the possible acquisition The country also hosts part of the Trans-Adri-
of a stake in the Albanian company and in stud- atic Pipeline (TAP) that flows gas from Azer-
ying joint projects,” AlbGaz said. baijan to southeast Europe. But its capacity
The agreement follows on from a memo- is already fully booked by customers in Italy,
randum of understanding the two companies Greece and Bulgaria, and so a proposed expan-
entered into in June, on potential development sion would have to go ahead before any supplies
of gas infrastructure in Albania. The southeast become available to Albania. Enagas is one of the
European country lacks this infrastructure cur- shareholders in TAP.
rently, but is considering the development of an Enagas did not say how large an investment
LNG terminal and a national network, to reduce it was considering in Albgaz, nor how great an
its overreliance on hydroelectric power, which equity stake it might take. But its CEO Arturo
leaves it vulnerable to energy shortages during Gonzalo said the cooperation agreement was
times of drought. evidence of the company’s “long-term com-
Albania does already have a 100-MW ther- mitment … in Europe and, in particular, in the
mal power plant in the port of Vlora that can run Mediterranean region, in line with its strategy of
on gas in addition to coal, but it has been left idle alliances with operators to further the security
since its completion in 2009 because of technical of supply.” ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 40 06•October•2022