NordStream2

[Hotone + 412]

On 8/23/2021 at 2:39 AM, Boat said:

That news was not big story  by the Media. This is the danger of a wing it Trump on the loose. All these presidents need to be kept on a shorter leash. It’s obvious that the military and politicians combined equal poor decisions and outcomes. They hide their games/moves with intent. We need to try an Asian woman president. The white boys are failures. 

Kamala for POTUS!  Make it soon!

[dukeNukem + 80]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:33 PM, Wombat1 said:

Tomasz, the EU prevented BHP from taking over Rio Tinto back in 2006 on the basis of competition policy. The Chinese got 15% of Rio Tinto 2 years later during the GFC. And they demanded spot pricing. The result? They have been paying exuberant prices for iron ore ever since. Then the Americans started bragging about how they were going to crush the Australian LNG industry by introducing spot prices to Asia. The result? Record high prices long before it has now finally occurred in Europe. As you say, the introduction of speculators has made life difficult for energy companies and consumers alike. I have mentioned this on another thread, "Green New Deal = Blizzard of Lies". The thrust of my argument was that market volatility over the last 13 years has made it impossible for energy companies to invest heavily. Especially the Western oil majors, who also face green tape. As a hard-hitter myself, I can say that "every dog has it's day", and so will be the case for Putin and Russia. I expect the Nord Stream 2 will make fantastic profits for 5-6 years, but start to become unviable after that. There is just so much gas in the Mediteranean and Qatar/Iran that consumer countries will gain the upper hand eventually and Hydrogen will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Where is so much gas in the Mediteranean? If you talk about Israel, they don't have much gas....Plus it is nontrivial task to deliver it to Europe...

 

[dukeNukem + 80]

On 9/13/2021 at 5:18 AM, Billyjack said:

Yes we should only believe what ever the government says, like you 'woke again" flock that worship the government. That's the reason that they try to reduce math education so they can say anything they want regardless of whether it adds up.

Please stop equivocate here...Just accept that you said stupid thing about Gazprom, that's it. You could not support your irrational statement. Do not appeal to "math and engineering". If you say stupid things, math and engineering does not matter. To live in the real world better to have logical and critical thinking. Do not believe in Flat Earth just because government says opposite.

Bye. 

[Piotr Berman + 82]

About gas fields in Western Siberia: those near Urals will perhaps get exhausted, but few hundreds kilometers to the east new fields are being developed, discovered ca. 1960, but less accessible (i.e. more infrastructure needed) than Yamal region.

https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2021/06/new-arctic-oil-region-emerges-banks-tazov-bay

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:28 AM, turbguy said:

After WWII, at least USA's Germans were better than the Soviet's Germans!

The Russians lost millions of citizens to Germany, America lost a relatively small number. We gave the Russians the ways and means to do the killing and stayed out until the Japanese forced our hand. Unfortunately the Soviet Union emerged from the damage the Germans created. Merkel is grew up in the Soviet Union, East Germany. She speaks Russian and has been plotting Germany's course for many years. 

[turbguy + 1,553]

Germany lost millions of citizens to both sides during WW2, not even including the "internal genocide" German politics "performed".

If the proton was discovered just 10 years earlier, Germany would easily have had thermonuclear weapons at their disposal during WW2.

If Merkel has lived and experienced East Germany, why would she EVER want to return to anything like that type of society??

Speaking Russian is quite an advantage, IMO.

[Ron Wagner + 714]

On 8/1/2021 at 8:34 PM, Boat said:

German nat gas consumption has been flat for years. They claim they want to go to renewables. So why would they want Russian infrastructure that will be a legacy mess in a few years? 

Merkel figures that a bear with a full belly is safer than one with an empty belly. Also, she is smart enough to know that Germany will need natural gas for the foreseeable future even though they don't want to use their own. Sort of like Newsome and California's solution.

[Ron Wagner + 714]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:15 PM, dukeNukem said:

Where is so much gas in the Mediteranean? If you talk about Israel, they don't have much gas....Plus it is nontrivial task to deliver it to Europe...

 

http://www.nsf-journal.hr/desktopmodules/dnninfo_news/newsimages/1225/366418_07-01-gas.png Main Oil Fields in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/regions_of_interest/Eastern_Mediterranean/eastern-mediterranean.pdf

Edited September 18, 2021 by Ron Wagner
reference

[dukeNukem + 80]

1 hour ago, Ron Wagner said:

http://www.nsf-journal.hr/desktopmodules/dnninfo_news/newsimages/1225/366418_07-01-gas.png Main Oil Fields in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/regions_of_interest/Eastern_Mediterranean/eastern-mediterranean.pdf

Thanks Ron. What I mean "not much gas" is potential export capacity about 10 bcm of gas per year to Europe...But it is really doubtful if Israel will be able to build pipeline. 1) Turkey heavily oppose it 2) Technical reasons, very difficult geology and deep depth subsea

[Ron Wagner + 714]

1 hour ago, dukeNukem said:

Thanks Ron. What I mean "not much gas" is potential export capacity about 10 bcm of gas per year to Europe...But it is really doubtful if Israel will be able to build pipeline. 1) Turkey heavily oppose it 2) Technical reasons, very difficult geology and deep depth subsea

Thanks Duke, I was thinking LNG for now and maybe a pipeline to Greece, Italy, or Spain in the future. It could then go anywhere to hook up with existing pipelines. 

https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/eastern-mediterranean-pipeline-project/#

Edited September 18, 2021 by Ron Wagner
reference

[bloodman33 + 22]

Reuters: Just announced that Trump has decided he will personally provide Germany with natural gas and a pipeline.  He is getting the pipe fitted to his buttocks this week ... end.  It is estimated that he personally will be able the double the output of the Russian pipeline as long as he is fed burgers. It is estimated that Trump has the equivalent year natural gas production of all cattle in the US.  Trumps fragrance is unique, which means Germany can save millions of Euros by not putting chemicals in the gas in order to detect leaks. Angela Merkel announced that this is a win win for both Germany and Donald Trump, but has expressed concern that there will not be enough junk food to keep his gas production at peak output, and has offered to send over German Sausage, if they can get Trump to eat it.  

[Jeroen Goudswaard + 61]

Germany is still heavily dependent on lignite for its power plants, which have to close down to get to the 2030 emissions goals. The only realistic way to close down all these mines and power plants by 2030 is to upgrade them to burn natural gas, at 2-3 times smaller CO2 emissions. Renewables cannot be built that quickly. At the same time, Europe's own gas production is contracting heavily. So NordStream 2 is needed for gas security. Another feud between Ukraine and Russia could paralyze the German economy. Not a risk Merkel can take.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Jeroen Goudswaard

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 9/20/2021 at 3:52 AM, Jeroen Goudswaard said:

Germany is still heavily dependent on lignite for its power plants, which have to close down to get to the 2030 emissions goals. The only realistic way to close down all these mines and power plants by 2030 is to upgrade them to burn natural gas, at 2-3 times smaller CO2 emissions. Renewables cannot be built that quickly. At the same time, Europe's own gas production is contracting heavily. So NordStream 2 is needed for gas security. Another feud between Ukraine and Russia could paralyze the German economy. Not a risk Merkel can take.

The hypnosis coming from the greenies is good enough to paralyze the brains of voters. Maybe the coming shortages and prices will awaken them, Americans, and others.

[frankfurter + 562]

news flash: US demands Russia boost natural gas deliveries to Europe through Ukraine.

well, well. uh, which Ukraine company has the transport rights? which company has the son of the great US Bidet on its board?  of course, the demand for more gas thru Ukraine has nothing do with the great Bidet, right?

 

[Billyjack + 58]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:23 PM, dukeNukem said:

Please stop equivocate here...Just accept that you said stupid thing about Gazprom, that's it. You could not support your irrational statement. Do not appeal to "math and engineering". If you say stupid things, math and engineering does not matter. To live in the real world better to have logical and critical thinking. Do not believe in Flat Earth just because government says opposite.

Bye. 

Thanks, I was about to defer to Mark Twain that you have proven. "Never argue with stupid people. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience."

[RichieRich216 + 454]

Russia is NOT a country, Just as Germany is NOT a country, Russia is entirely run by the former KGB & SECRET POLICE  that grabbed everything when the Soviet Union collapsed. Germany is run ( not as stringent ) by decades of family NAZI’S that have also grabbed power through the formation of the EU.

I look forward to seeing both Countries try and fuck each other over Nord Stream when winter hits!

[Tomasz + 1,608]

3 hours ago, RichieRich216 said:

Russia is NOT a country, Just as Germany is NOT a country, Russia is entirely run by the former KGB & SECRET POLICE  that grabbed everything when the Soviet Union collapsed. Germany is run ( not as stringent ) by decades of family NAZI’S that have also grabbed power through the formation of the EU.

I look forward to seeing both Countries try and fuck each other over Nord Stream when winter hits!

Then I will say in the same manner that the US is ruled by Wall Street oligarchs and the Deep State actors which is an alliance of secret services and the military industry lobby.

For about 4 years you've had a president that is still supported by at least 40% of Americans.

He was  banned from facebook and twitter despite at the time  he was stil POTUS and then the leftists/liberals and twitter haters  celebrated.

So please now without any hipocrisy and double standards that half year later the followers of Navalny are banned from the Internet by russian Deep State called "siloviki" using exactly the same method.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Tomasz

[Tomasz + 1,608]

In the context of NORD STREAM II, we need to type in Google  "Mitteleuropa as the final end goal of Germany for starting both World War I and World War II" And everything about the topic becomes clear.

PS In order to be better informed apart from Google use also Duck Duck Go or YANDEX (russian net platform)

 

Current gas situation:

Current gas situation:

I find it some what ironic that the EU and the US state that “the Russians may be trying to squeeze the continent even after never ending story that Europa really doesnt need russian gas anymore.

There was talk for years that Russia sends way too much gas to Europe. Now its said it sells way too little despite selling something like only 2 % less than in record breaking 2018.

Isn’t this strategy made in the “capitalist” way? Didn’t the electrical companies “squeeze” Texans during last winters ice storm? Spot market pricing for electricity?

The “Russians” have “learned” the Western ways. Let's hope Russians learned also not to oversqueeze.

Better hurry up and certify Nordstream 2 then.

And if someone wants even more gas, more long-term contracts must be concluded that guarantee costly and long-term investments. This, in my opinion, is what this report says.

https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/big-bounce-russian-gas-amid-market-tightness/

 

Quote

 

Big Bounce: Russian gas amid market tightness

The big bounce in Russian gas production in 2021 has proven to be insufficient to meet the simultaneous spikes in demand at home and abroad. Russian gas output has risen robustly and has been close to its maximum productive capacities but the necessity to fill the depleted domestic gas storage facilities in Q3 2021 limited the availability of Russian gas for Europe when it was most needed.  Indeed, Russian exports to Europe this year have reached the record levels last seen in 2018-19, focusing mostly on Turkey and Germany – the two markets that are connected to the Russian gas system by direct undersea pipelines.  Moreover, with other supply sources to Europe falling, and given the changing geography of Russian reserves, it appears that Russia cannot single-handedly balance sudden spikes in European gas demand. Russia is not running out of gas and its prolific gas reserves allow Russia to meet much higher overall demand, but this requires time, money, and contractual assurances of offtake.

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Tomasz

[ronwagn + 6,290]

23 hours ago, Tomasz said:

In the context of NORD STREAM II, we need to type in Google  "Mitteleuropa as the final end goal of Germany for starting both World War I and World War II" And everything about the topic becomes clear.

PS In order to be better informed apart from Google use also Duck Duck Go or YANDEX (russian net platform)

 

Current gas situation:

Current gas situation:

I find it some what ironic that the EU and the US state that “the Russians may be trying to squeeze the continent even after never ending story that Europa really doesnt need russian gas anymore.

There was talk for years that Russia sends way too much gas to Europe. Now its said it sells way too little despite selling something like only 2 % less than in record breaking 2018.

Isn’t this strategy made in the “capitalist” way? Didn’t the electrical companies “squeeze” Texans during last winters ice storm? Spot market pricing for electricity?

The “Russians” have “learned” the Western ways. Let's hope Russians learned also not to oversqueeze.

Better hurry up and certify Nordstream 2 then.

And if someone wants even more gas, more long-term contracts must be concluded that guarantee costly and long-term investments. This, in my opinion, is what this report says.

https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/big-bounce-russian-gas-amid-market-tightness/

 

 

 

Your statement does not seem to correlate well with Russian urgency in building Nordstream 2. The price they will be charging Europeans will tell the truth. I predict it will start out the winter just a bit below LNG. 

 

[nsdp + 449]

If the LNG tankers can continue to make it to US ports we will have about 3X the LNG available as last year. due  to 5 or 6 new trains coming on line.  Long voyage but Australia/New Guinea has excess gas and Europe can play that card against Russia.

[Rasmus Jorgensen + 1,169]

On 9/23/2021 at 1:38 AM, Tomasz said:

In the context of NORD STREAM II, we need to type in Google  "Mitteleuropa as the final end goal of Germany for starting both World War I and World War II" And everything about the topic becomes clear.

PS In order to be better informed apart from Google use also Duck Duck Go or YANDEX (russian net platform)

 

Current gas situation:

Current gas situation:

I find it some what ironic that the EU and the US state that “the Russians may be trying to squeeze the continent even after never ending story that Europa really doesnt need russian gas anymore.

There was talk for years that Russia sends way too much gas to Europe. Now its said it sells way too little despite selling something like only 2 % less than in record breaking 2018.

Isn’t this strategy made in the “capitalist” way? Didn’t the electrical companies “squeeze” Texans during last winters ice storm? Spot market pricing for electricity?

The “Russians” have “learned” the Western ways. Let's hope Russians learned also not to oversqueeze.

Better hurry up and certify Nordstream 2 then.

And if someone wants even more gas, more long-term contracts must be concluded that guarantee costly and long-term investments. This, in my opinion, is what this report says.

https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/big-bounce-russian-gas-amid-market-tightness/

 

 

 

The renewable energy investment in Europe that is so mocked on this site is also about energy security. Gas is nothing but a bridge fuel. Needed as feedstock for pet-chem for sure, but its industrial and power-gen uses will fade before NS 2. NS2 will end as a stranded asset. let's see who gets the last laugh. 

[Tomasz + 1,608]

In the appendix below everyone can decide  whether it is a) Gazprom's blackmail or b) structural gas shortage around the world including c) speculation on the gas market which exploded to absurd proportions.

Once more

Quote

The big bounce in Russian gas production in 2021 has proven to be insufficient to meet the simultaneous spikes in demand at home and abroad. Russian gas output has risen robustly and has been close to its maximum productive capacities but the necessity to fill the depleted domestic gas storage facilities in Q3 2021 limited the availability of Russian gas for Europe when it was most needed.  Indeed, Russian exports to Europe this year have reached the record levels last seen in 2018-19, focusing mostly on Turkey and Germany – the two markets that are connected to the Russian gas system by direct undersea pipelines.  Moreover, with other supply sources to Europe falling, and given the changing geography of Russian reserves, it appears that Russia cannot single-handedly balance sudden spikes in European gas demand. Russia is not running out of gas and its prolific gas reserves allow Russia to meet much higher overall demand, but this requires time, money, and contractual assurances of offtake.

Appendix 2021 versus 2020

Edited September 27, 2021 by Tomasz

[Tomasz + 1,608]

 

Quote

 

LONG READ: How a V-shaped market and ageing pipes and fields sent gas prices soaring

Politics obviously play a role in the Kremlin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but the dramatic changes in gas demand and Russia's ageing gas fields and infrastructure have been the biggest price drivers.

 

 

By Ben Aris in Berlin September 26, 2021

With the heating season officially due to start next week, gas prices have soared and Russia has been blamed for it, accused of cutting supplies to Europe as a way of putting political pressure on the EU and forcing it to rapidly certify Russia’s new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that cuts Ukraine out of the supply loop.

The reality is a lot more complicated. Nord Stream 2 does play a role but the main mechanism at work on the prices is a sharp V-shaped market where there was a gas glut in 2020 that depressed prices and led to record-high gas storage, exacerbated by the uncertainty of Russia and Ukraine renewing their gas transit deal in December 1999.

However, a long cold winter at the start of 2021, a hot summer (that drives up electricity usage and hence demand for gas) and various maintenance and accident outages in the main pipelines have all conspired to lead to extremely low storage. By the end of the summer when it became obvious that gas storage levels were going to be low going into the heating season prices took off as the scramble to secure supplies began.

The problems of gas supply have been exacerbated by the falling output at some of Europe’s biggest fields in the UK and the Netherlands, which have passed their sell-by date.

With its massive reserves Russia has become the main swing producer of gas for Europe, ramping up or cutting back supply as demand changes. But in Russia too, the main mega-fields that have supplied Europe for decades have passed maturity and are in slow decline, especially the Cenomanian gas fields in Western Siberia that feeds the central pipeline network that leads into the Ukrainian pipeline network. Massive investments have been made into Cenomanian simply to maintain production at current levels.

The falling output at Cenomanian has been replaced by the relatively young fields in Yamal that feed the northern system of pipelines that include Nord Stream 1 & 2 pipelines to Germany, but with Nord Stream 1 already working at full capacity and Nord Stream 2 yet to go into operation, the enormous reserves of gas in Yamal are unavailable during the current crisis.

And it is not possible to divert gas from Yamal and the northern pipeline system to the central pipeline system and on to Europe via Ukraine. There are interconnections, but the 40-year-old central pipeline network has already been slated for decommissioning and during the lead-up to the winter season the interconnectors are already at full capacity as Gazprom, like Europe, is rushing to fill Russia’s domestic storage facilities with enough gas to get through the winter: in September Gazprom had 25bn cubic metres in storage out of the total of 75 bcm it needs during the cold months.  

Russia is suffering from the same supply and storage problems as Europe which has put added pressure on its ability to supply Europe with gas. Rather than cutting supplies, as bne IntelliNews has reported Gazprom is currently producing record amounts of gas and exporting record amounts.

Taken all together, the falling production at European and key Russian fields, the problems of switching gas from the northern pipeline system to the central one and the idle state of Nord Stream 2 have combined to limit Gazprom’s ability to act as the swing supplier, as it is running up against its practical ability to increase production or export volumes any further.

The bottom line is: all the governments say there will be enough gas for the winter. Naftogaz announced that it is ready for winter with just over 18 bcm in storage – sufficient for the winter and likewise Russia and the EU have also just about enough to get through; plus the EU has a fall back on LNG imports to make up any shortfall, although all the swing supply in LNG has been drawn off by Asia, where the prices are even higher than in Europe.

What everyone is afraid of is if there is another cold winter like last year’s, fuel supplies will be very tight and prices will remain at record highs.

Gas glut in 2020 pushed prices and production down

In 2020 gas prices crashed as both Russia and Ukraine built up as much stored gas as they could ahead of a potential energy crisis that could have been caused if their transit deal had not been renewed at the end of 1999.

“In 2020 the gas glut in Europe emerged even before the full extent of the COVID-19 threat became obvious. The global gas market had been oversupplied for some time due to the emergence of new LNG supply during 2018-2019 from projects, which took investment decisions in the mid-2010s. These supply additions entered the market at a time when global demand failed to meet growth expectations,” says Yermakov.

At the end of December 2019, an end-of-year record of 91.5 bcm – 20 bcm higher than at the end of 2018 – was in storage. As the coronacrisis began to unfurl the oversupply problem was only made worse, which led to record amounts of gas in storage by the spring of 2020. Gas prices tanked.

Faced with low prices and low demand in 2020 Russia cut back its overall production that year to 693 bcm, down by 46 bcm, or 6.2%, on the year before. Gazprom took the brunt of the blow and absorbed almost all of the reduction, taking its production down to 455 bcm (a fall of 47 bcm year on year, or 9.3%) while the other gas producers in Russia keep increasing their production steadily. At the same time, Russia reduced its gas purchases from Central Asia.

Facing shrinking and uncertain demand during 2020, Gazprom laid the foundations for the current supply crunch by also drastically reducing the pumping of gas into its domestic underground gas storage facilities by 20 bcm, down 38% y/y to 33 bcm.  

As it turned out, Russia’s national supplier Gazprom signed off on a new transit deal at the last minute that commits the Russian gas giant to send 40 bcm via Ukraine’s Druzhba pipeline until 2024.

Bounce-back in 2021

The bounce-back started in the spring of this year as the market switched rapidly from overabundance to tightness. In Europe, a long cold spring extended the heating season, while the re-opening of business activity boosted economic growth. European gas demand rose robustly, by almost 25% y/y in the second quarter alone.

At the same time, indigenous European gas production declined more than 10% y/y in the first six months of this year, with Norway, the UK and the Netherlands all producing less gas than in the previous year. By the summer the supply problem became so obvious gas prices started setting new records on almost a daily basis.

Stored gas was drawn down but to add to the pressure Gazprom closed its Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline for annual maintenance in August, disrupting supplies, which were further disrupted after a fire at Gazprom’s Urengoy Condensate Treatment Plant in August closed part of the line.

“The record-high prices in Europe are driven by increased demand (due to the wider economic recovery and weather-related factors), competition with Asia for LNG, and a limited supply response from Gazprom, Europe’s largest supplier, providing about a third of Europe’s gas. Prices have also risen due to market fears of a gas deficit during the winter heating season due to low European storage utilisation compared to previous years,” said Vitaly Yermakov, senior research fellow the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) in a paper entitled “Big Bounce: Russian gas amid market tightness.”

As bne IntelliNews reported, Gazprom has been exporting record amounts of gas to European clients, but has not taken up all of the capacity on offer from the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU). With the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline completed but still missing the essential operating permits from Germany, that has led many to accuse Gazprom of artificially manipulating the supplies for both commercial gain and political reasons.

Yermakov argues that Russian gas production is maxed out and it is unable to supply more gas to Europe even if it wanted to.

“For Russian gas, 2021 has developed into a pivotal year, as the gas market pendulum has swung back from relative gas abundance and extremely low prices in 2020 to market tightness and very high gas prices so far in 2021. The past two years, therefore, have represented two slopes in a ‘V-shape’ trend for the gas market at large and for Russian gas in particular,” Yermakov said.

LNG supplies disappear, Gazprom to the rescue

Normally burgeoning LNG supplies could make up the shortfall, but prices for LNG in Asia have been even higher than those in Europe, sucking that supply away from European markets, leading to a triple whammy in gas supplies.

“With declining indigenous production in Europe and limited availability of LNG owing to the strong pull from premium markets in Asia, the European gas market is a case in point. Europe now demands greater flexibility from suppliers, in both price and the ability to swing gas deliveries,” says Yermakov, adding that Russia’s ability to add that extra flexibility may have been largely used up.

“Many European analysts and market watchers expected that Russia as the largest swing producer and exporter would value an opportunity to expand its market share, at least in the short term, and quickly respond to a higher call on gas in Europe in 2021,” Yermakov said.

And Russia did, with recent reports showing Russia’s gas exports to Europe (including Turkey) up almost 20% y/y in the first half of this year. “But this has proved to be insufficient to address a sudden void in Europe’s gas balance. Gas storage levels in Europe are at historical lows at the start of the heating season and gas prices have been testing record levels,” says Yermakov.

LNG could ease the pressure but Russia is still not producing enough to meet the demand. In 2020, Russia became one of the ‘Big Four’ global LNG producers, and production has increased from 10mn tonnes per year after the Sakhalin plant went online to 30mn tpy now. But that is still dwarfed by Qatar, the world’s biggest producer, with 125mn tpy.

The distribution of Russian LNG exports in 2020 was skewed in favour of Europe (18.35mn tonnes) at the expense of Asia (11.25mn tonnes) due to the disappearance of the usual Asian premium. Sakhalin LNG stayed in Asia but deliveries from Novatek’s Yamal LNG mostly ended up in Europe.

Overall Europe already has fairly diversified gas supplies. Gazprom’s share of European gas consumption peaked at 36.6% in 2018, and Russia’s overall share (for both pipeline and LNG) reached 39% that year. Russian pipeline gas market share returned to its more ‘normal’ 32.4% in 2020 as Gazprom had to accommodate the inflow of global LNG during the first half of 2020 as well.

Exports to the three largest purchasers of Gazprom gas in Western Europe were up in the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020: an increase of 8.7 bcm in Germany (up 43%), up 1.4 bcm in Italy (up 14%) and an increase of 9.9 bcm in Turkey (up 209%). Russian pipeline gas exports to China continued to ramp up according to plan and are set to amount to 10 bcm for the full year of 2021.

“Total exports to Western Europe and Turkey grew to 77.2 bcm, up 17.1bcm or 29% year-on-year. This was, in fact, higher than in the pre-crisis first half of 2019,” says Yermarkov.

Pipeline switches

Russia remains Europe’s swing supplier, in the strongest position to react to changes in demand. Previously the swing supplies would be sent via Ukraine, but Russia’s pipeline network is changing.

New pipelines have come online in the last two years -- Nord Stream 1 and TurkStream – and it is not a coincidence that these two countries also took the biggest increases in Russian gas flows west this year. Germany would have taken even more – enough to avoid the current supply crisis – had Nord Stream 2 been completed as scheduled at the end of last year.

Nord Stream 1 utilisation amounted to 58.7 bcm, 58.5bcm, and 59.3 bcm in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively (exceeding the nameplate capacity of the pipeline by 6-8%). This was helped by the start of the EUGAL pipeline that allowed Gazprom to overcome the regulatory restrictions imposed on the full use of the OPAL pipeline.

Gazprom launched its new 31.5 bcm TurkStream pipeline in January 2020. Russian gas exports via TurkStream amounted to 13.5 bcm in 2020 (43% utilisation of 31.5 bcm combined capacity of the two strings). It is expected to ramp up utilisation with the redirection of deliveries to Serbia and Hungary away from the Ukrainian route when the pipeline connections to these countries become fully operational.

With the two new forks to Russia’s gas pipeline delivery trident to Europe – Nord Stream 2 in the north and TurkStream in the south – the biggest loser has already been the central prong that goes via Ukraine.

In 2018 Gazprom transited 86.8 bcm via Ukraine using about 65% of Ukraine’s available transit capacity to Europe that year. In 2019 Russian gas transit through Ukraine rose by 3%, to 89.2 bcm. But under the new deal with Ukraine the annual booked capacity for 2020 was 65 bcm in 2020, falling to 40 bcm a year until the deal expires in 2024. In 2020 the actual transit via Ukraine was 55.8 bcm, but Gazprom had to pay for the full 65 bcm anyway under the terms of the new deal.

The deal specifies equal daily bookings of 178.1mn cubic metres per day in 2020 and 109.6 mcm per day in 2021-2024. The bonus for Ukraine is Gazprom agreed to take-or-pay terms: Russia has to pay for the capacity even if it doesn't use it out to the end of 2024.

“So far in 2021 the daily average transit flows via Ukraine (excluding deliveries to Moldova) have been 107.3 mcm per day from 1 January to 31 August, equating to an annual equivalent of 39.2 bcm. Aside from January 2021 (when Gazprom booked around 41.6 mcm per day of extra capacity), Gazprom booked 15 mcm per day of firm monthly capacity via Ukraine – the exact amount offered by GTSOU, the Ukrainian gas pipeline operator. This was also the maximum amount covered by the Russia-Ukraine interconnection agreement on the Russia-Ukraine border,” says Yermakov.

Gazprom remains reluctant to book more export capacity – GTSOU is also offering “interruptible” capacity where space in the pipeline is not guaranteed – partly as transit via Ukraine is now by far the most expensive option and GTSOU has not been offering the usual 60% discount for interruptible capacity.

Ageing fields

Russia has a lot of gas, but some of its fields are getting very old. In a speech in September Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that Gazprom has “reserves for 100 years” but the geography from where it extracts its gas is changing, says Yermakov.

“For almost forty years, Russia’s gas output has been supported by the Soviet legacy of super-giant Cenomanian gas fields in the Nadym-Pur-Taz (NPT) region in Western Siberia, but these fields are now in irreversible decline,” says Yermakov.

“Gazprom has been trying to manage the output decline by developing wet gas from deeper layers of the NPT super-giants, initially from Valanginian, and recently from Achimov deposits, but this can only slow the natural decline of the NPT production, not reverse it. In order to meet demand, Gazprom has been developing a new gas province on the Yamal peninsula in the Russian Arctic since the early 2010s, where the Bovanenkovskoye field, the first in a series of the new super-giants, produced 99 bcm of gas in 2020,” Yermakov added.

Nord Stream 2 has been criticised as being economically superfluous, as Ukraine has plenty of capacity (an estimated total of around 145 bcm) to transit all the gas Russia wants to send to the west. But that ignores the fact that in addition to the decline of the Cenomanian fields, the pipelines serving it are also at the end of their useful life and are due to be decommissioned.

“Gazprom has already announced that it will be decommissioning the older pipelines in the Central corridor in line with the reduction of flows from NPT caused by production declines there. Some of these pipelines have been in operation for over forty years and have passed the limits of their economic life, imposing high repair and maintenance costs on Gazprom,” Yermakov said. “This means that the capacity of Russian pipelines leading towards the Ukrainian transit corridor is going to decline substantially in the future, limiting the volumes of gas available for the Ukrainian route.”

The Yamal project is about tapping new super-fields and building new pipelines to service them that can supply Europe for decades to come. Moreover, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is not only shorter; it is much cheaper to use, improving the profitability for the development of the Yamal fields and those beyond it in Russia's part of the Arctic, where some 75% of Russia’s untapped gas deposits are thought to lie.

All these assumptions are built into Gazprom’s long-term investment strategy for the development of its fields to 2035. All of the falling output at NPT will be taken up with new production from the Yamal complex.  

 

The long-term demand from Europe may be limited after the EU launched its Green Deal this year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Moscow in September to meet with Putin and talk gas but during her visit she said that gas imports from Russia could fall to nothing in the next 25 years as the EU moves increasingly to renewables and tries to become carbon neutral by 2050.

For Gazprom the future is in the east, supplying China, where demand is expected to decouple in the next few decades from the paltry 10 bcm China is currently importing from Russia, via the Power of Siberia pipeline.

“The Asian market – the market of Asia-Pacific – has an exceptionally large capacity. According to forecasts up to 2040, consumption in this region will grow by 1.5 trillion cubic metres of gas, of which 60% will be imported,” Miller said at a conference in September.

“There is no doubt that the Chinese market is the most dynamic and fast-growing one, and it shows simply unbelievable consumption growth rates every year. The year 2021 is no exception. In the first half of the year, natural gas consumption in China grew by 15.5%. The volume of imports increased by 23.8%. This means that China’s projected consumption based on the results of 2021 will amount to 360 bcm, and the volume of imports will total 160 bcm. Moreover, the annual volume of gas imports is expected to reach 300 bcm as early as by 2023, in just 15 years. The figure is just staggering,” Miller told delegates.

Gazprom can easily increase deliveries via the Power of Siberia route but also from Sakhalin by a spur to China from the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok line. But a real game-changer could be a mooted pipeline to China from Western Siberia via Mongolia that could for the first time create an alternative to supplies to Europe for Russian gas in Western Siberia.

“The [Chinese] contract is a unique one. It is the world’s largest contract for gas supplies: 38 bcm of gas for 30 years. Having signed this contract, China has become one of our biggest consumers in a flash. In fact, today we can say that the co-operation between Russia and China is the co-operation between the largest producer and the largest importer,” Miller told the conference delegates. Gazprom plans to increase exports to China to 80 bcm a year by 2035, according to its long-term strategy. 

The Eastern and Northern pipeline systems are being expanded, while those in the Central corridor are due to be phased out. Standing behind Nord Stream 2 is another new set of pipelines to feed into this important export route. The new Bovanenkovo-Ukhta and Ukhta-Torzhok pipelines were completed in 2018 with a capacity of 115 bcm per year and were built to evacuate new gas from the super-giant Bovanenkovskoye field, which is part of the Yamal complex, and send it on to Germany via Nord Stream 1 and 2.

There may well be a lot of politics involved in the decision to build Nord Stream 2 and cut Ukraine out of the gas delivery loop to Europe. However, there are a lot of business reasons too. The falling production at the traditional gas fields in West Siberia, the ageing pipeline system that supports it and most importantly, the anticipated shrinking demand for gas in the EU all make Europe a less interesting market. The future for Russian gas lies in the east and in the meantime Gazprom is trying to sell what gas it can to the west as profitably as it can.  

 

 

 

[Chuko + 4]

On 9/25/2021 at 3:38 PM, Rasmus Jorgensen said:

The renewable energy investment in Europe that is so mocked on this site is also about energy security. Gas is nothing but a bridge fuel. Needed as feedstock for pet-chem for sure, but its industrial and power-gen uses will fade before NS 2. NS2 will end as a stranded asset. let's see who gets the last laugh. 

It's just that there are two methods to achieve the same "energy secure" result. One is to find an alternative source of cheap energy and the other is to destroy demand by making industry uncompetitive and pushing the standards of living down until most of the people cannot afford to consume any energy. In both cases NS2 becomes a stranded asset and you can have your laugh, but I strongly prefer the former scenario. And I find very troubling that there is so much done to nudge us towards the latter scenario. Including the unscientific and ideology driven decisions in the energy sector. E.g. when energy security is used as an argument to force the gas to continue being transported from the same Russian source through war torn Ukraine and not through a newer shorter and cheaper pipeline.

[dukeNukem + 80]

On 9/24/2021 at 4:20 AM, nsdp said:

If the LNG tankers can continue to make it to US ports we will have about 3X the LNG available as last year. due  to 5 or 6 new trains coming on line.  Long voyage but Australia/New Guinea has excess gas and Europe can play that card against Russia.

Have you seen Henry Hub gas prices? If you have 3x LNG available, price will be significantly higher. For both US customers and European customers... Australia and New Guinea dont have enough gas for Europe...Australia dont even have enough gas for local and international clients.... Australian government trying to put obligations onto gas companies to reserve certain supply to local market.