The accident at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines led to another round of rising gas prices in Europe. This is evidenced by trading data on the largest European trading hub in the Netherlands.
The cost of a thousand cubic meters of gas during the auction jumped by 11.88% and reached $1922.57. At the same time, during the previous trading session the day before, the price was around $1720. Investors and speculators fear that a gas pipeline failure could increase risks to Europe's energy security and exacerbate an already severe energy shortage in the region.
On Monday, September 27, it became known that pressure had dropped in one of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, and later on the same day it turned out that pressure had dropped in both Nord Stream pipelines. Thus, only one of the four threads remained in relatively working condition. The official reasons for the incident have not yet been named, but European politicians and sources suspect that a sabotage was committed to disable both pipelines.
In an interview with The Insider, oil and gas market expert Mikhail Krutikhin expressed confidence that the situation could be beneficial for the Russian company Gazprom, which will now be able to write off the reduction in gas supplies to Europe as force majeure and avoid multimillion-dollar fines in the courts.
“I can immediately name the party that benefits from this – this is Gazprom, which needs an excuse in order not to pay a penalty for disrupting gas supplies under contracts. Since there is no force majeure, the interruption of supplies due to politics is not accepted as a reason and billions of euros or dollars will have to be paid, as it is. So the interested party here is Gazprom,” the expert said.
Krutikhin does not intend to rush to conclusions and fully admits that the problems may be caused by technical reasons. He recalled that due to the sanctions, Nord Stream 2 was laid by Russian ships, which were unsuitable for such work. We are talking about the Akademik Chersky pipe-laying barge and the Fortuna pipe-laying barge, which are designed for other types of work.
“We do not see from here how large the accident is and how long it will take to eliminate it. If this is indeed a rupture in the pipes, then more than one month may pass. It is impossible to close it at the bottom, you need to lift these pipes with powerful cranes, then do something with them with ships that are adapted for this, ”the expert said.
According to Krutikhin, "Akademik Chersky" is now on Sakhalin, so he will not be able to start repair work soon, but whether it is possible to involve Western companies and ships in the repair is "an open question."