In the event of the termination or suspension of gas exports to Europe, Russia will not suffer much damage. But for the EU, this winter will be extremely difficult. So says the editor of the Polish portal Biznes Alert Mariusz Marszalkowski.
“Natural gas is a much simpler instrument from a political point of view. If supplies are cut off, the gas shortage becomes noticeable faster and harms households to a greater extent, especially those that use gas to heat their buildings”, explains Marshalkovsky.
The expert draws attention to the fact that the termination of gas supplies causes more damage to importers than in the event of a shortage of oil, therefore, for Russia, these are insignificant losses for the budget as a whole. As the second reason for using natural gas in politics, he cites the problematic nature of gas storage. Unlike crude oil, which can be stored in many different ways, such as in railroad tanks, caverns or tank trucks, natural gas is “very picky”. Gas storage facilities are very expensive and, in principle, there are not many of them.
“In case of interruptions in the supply of crude oil, Poland is secured for about 90 days, while in the case of natural gas in winter, it’s only 30 days,” he summarizes.
As EADaily reported, in recent days, European traders have almost halved their gas extraction from storage facilities. Due to the high rate, the EU countries burned a quarter of the gas injected this year in two months of the heating season. Winter has just come to Europe, and Gazprom has not announced that it plans to launch non-contractual volumes on the market without launching Nord Stream-2. Therefore, the taken rate of gas extraction from storage facilities threatens that by the end of March Europe will be left without any reserves at all.
On December 14, the European Commission will propose how to change the gas market in Europe at the legislative level in order to avoid a repeat of record gas prices.