Once again, Russia is putting a small plug in the supply of natural gas to Europe because maintenance is to be carried out on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. This was expected, says Professor of Energy Planning Brian Vad Mathiesen from Aalborg University. He believes that it is now really time for action.
- The uncertainty surrounding gas supplies from Russia is far too great. We must act on the basis that it is an unstable energy supply and be happy if we get something, but be prepared for gas supplies to essentially end from tomorrow, he says and believes that it is time for the EU countries to make some tough decisions.
It is the Russian company Gazprom that announced on Monday evening that Nord Stream 1 will be reduced to approximately 20 percent capacity from Wednesday due to maintenance of a gas turbine. The supply has already dropped to 40 percent.
This happened in June this year. The reason was a lack of parts for the gas pipeline, it was said. But Germany says on the contrary that there are no technical reasons to cut the supply.
Gazprom has not immediately given any time frame for when capacity will be increased again after the upcoming maintenance.
Does not believe in restarting supply from Nord Stream 1
Professor Brian Vad Mathiesen believes that this is Russia's way of putting pressure on Europe, which imports around 40 percent of its gas from Russia. He does not believe that Nord Stream 1 will really get going again. Instead, according to him, the EU should get involved.
- A natural gas delivery of 20 percent means that we cannot fill up the gas storages. And that means we have to make the hard choices that are needed to get through next winter in a sensible way, says Brian Vad Mathiesen.
Last week, the European Commission presented a proposal that EU countries should reduce their gas consumption by 15 percent on their own initiative from August 1 to March 31 next year. It is possible for Denmark, estimates Brian Vad Mathiesen, who even believes that Denmark can reduce its consumption of natural gas by more than that. According to him, one should first look towards the industrial sector.
Green Power Denmark: Gas independence must be boosted
Kristian Jensen, CEO of the industry organization Green Power Denmark, also believes that it is time to act to become independent of Russian gas.
- We need to boost the transition of both companies and citizens away from gas and towards electricity, because we can do it ourselves. We can free ourselves from Putin's gas if we switch from gas to electricity now, he says.
According to Kristian Jensen, one way to do this is to make it easier to access funds allocated in the Finance Act for the business sector's transition away from natural gas.
There must be faster case processing and easier application procedures, he believes.
Ritzau
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
