Page 11 - Gi February 2022

international news

KREMLIN DENIES RESTRICTING GAS

SUPPLIES TO EUROPE FOR POLITICAL GAIN

should contribute to efforts to curb higher
bills for households and businesses.
“There are big producers and sellers
of energy that are having fantastic
profits. They will need to participate to
support the economy, they too need to
help families,” Draghi said in Rome.
Some analysts and European
politicians have suggested Moscow is
deliberately suppressing gas deliveries
to shore up its political position amid
tensions over Ukraine and delays
in European certification of another
pipeline, Nord Stream 2.
The Kremlin denied using such
tactics. “There is absolutely no
RUSSIA SAYS SUPPLY SQUEEZES ARE A connection [to Nord Stream 2], this
‘PURELY COMMERCIAL’ DECISION is a purely commercial situation,” a
spokesperson said.
THE KREMLIN HAS denied using data from the network operator Gascade The German power suppliers RWE and
Russia’s gas resources to turn the showed. Gazprom, the Russian state Uniper, both among the largest customers
screw on Europe with supply squeezes gas firm, said the supply was flowing to of Gazprom, said the state firm was
keeping prices near record highs as Russia instead because of cold weather meeting its delivery obligations.
midwinter approaches, according to and high demand there. The pipeline reversal has added to
The Guardian. Mario Draghi, the Italian Prime other pressures that have kept gas prices
In December, flows through the Minister, has called for urgent action high for much of 2021, with knock-on
Yamal-Europe pipeline to Germany to counter rocketing fuel costs. He said effects that have included a raft of UK
declined before stopping and reversing, companies profiting from the crisis energy suppliers going bust.

TURKMENISTAN PLANS TO EXTINGUISH VAST that hit a gas cavern, causing the
drilling rig to fall in and the earth to
GAS CRATER FIRE DUBBED ‘GATEWAY TO HELL’ collapse underneath it. To prevent the
dangerous fumes from spreading, the
Soviets decided to burn off the gas by
TURKMENISTAN’S STRONGMAN resources for which we could get setting it on fire.
LEADER has ordered experts to find a significant profits and use them The pit has been ablaze ever since
way to finally extinguish a massive five- for improving the wellbeing of our and previous attempts to put it out
decade-old fire in a giant natural gas people,” he said. have been unsuccessful. The resulting
crater, labelled the “gateway to hell”. Berdymukhamedov instructed crater – 70 metres (229ft) wide and
Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, officials to “find a solution to 20 metres deep – is a popular tourist
President of the central Asian country, extinguish the fire”. attraction in the ex-Soviet country.
has told officials to put out the flames The crater was created in 1971 In 2018, the president officially
at the Darvaza gas crater in the middle during a Soviet drilling accident renamed it the “Shining of Karakum”.
of the vast Karakum desert. He cited
environmental and economic concerns.
In 2010, Berdymukhamedov
also ordered experts to find a way
to put out the flames, which have
been burning since a Soviet drilling
operation went awry in 1971.
Berdymukhamedov said the
human-made crater “negatively
affects both the environment and the
health of the people living nearby”.
“We are losing valuable natural THE CRATER HAS BEEN ABLAZE FOR DECADES

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27/01/2022 11:49
News.indd 6
News.indd 6 27/01/2022 11:49