Page 11 - FSUOGM Week 40 2022

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

As expected, Ukraine was even more explicit: operations.
“The large-scale ‘gas leak’ at Nord Stream 1 is The leak of so much methane into the atmos-
nothing more than a terrorist attack planned by phere will exact a heavy toll on the environment,
Russia and an act of aggression towards the EU,” as methane is fifty times more damaging than
wrote Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo CO2, say experts. The Danes calculated that the
Podoliak on Twitter. climate impact of the gas leak corresponds to
Moscow has blamed the US, pointing to about a third of Denmark’s total climate impact
explicit threats by US President Joe Biden and in one year, but poses no health or other risk to
others ahead of the war that the US would shut the population.
down the pipeline if Russia invaded Ukraine, No gas was flowing through either of the
irrespective of its European partners’ wishes. pipelines. Nord Stream 2 was never certified
Russia has called a UN emergency meeting and never went into operation; Nord Stream 1
where it will present 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. ™

INVESTMENT

Enel wraps up Russian sale to Lukoil,

local fund

RUSSIA PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has given Italian “focus on its activities mainly in countries where
energy utility Enel the green light to sell a major- an integrated position along the value chain
Lukoil until now did not ity share in its Russian unit to oil major Lukoil can drive growth and enhance value creation
have any significant and investment fund Gazprombank-Frezia, from the opportunities offered by the energy
power assets. according to a presidential decree issued on transition.”
September 30. Lukoil has not commented on the transac-
The deal’s completion has been complicated tion. The company currently lacks any gener-
by a previous decree issued in August, which ation units, save for mostly small-scale ones it
prohibits foreign firms from closing the sale of uses at specific oil and gas assets, such as fields,
their assets without Putin’s direct approval. refineries and processing plants. ™
“Enel learned about the approval of the
sale of its stake in Enel Russia to Lukoil and
Gazprom-Frezia fund and informs that it will
proceed with the transaction in the coming
days,” a company spokesman for Enel told
Reuters.
Enel announced the deal in June, under
which it will transfer a 56.4% shareholding in
Enel Russia for €137mn ($134mn). Enel Rus-
sia controls some 5.6 GW of conventional
power generation capacity plus an additional
300 MW of wind capacity at varying stages of
development.
In its initial announcement, Enel said it
expected the deal to be closed in the third quar-
ter of this year. It said the sale would allow it to

Week 40 06•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11