The issue of supplying natural gas from Russia to Germany has been shaking up the energy markets in recent months. The price of gas exceeded the record recorded after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and crossed the level of 300 euros per megawatt-hour in recent days. The price of electricity contracts in Germany and France (suffering from a crisis in its atomic energy industry) reached more than 1,000 euros per megawatt hour. Russia has reduced the flow of gas on technical grounds, and is threatening to disable the Nord Stream pipeline for infrastructure work. Today, only about 20% of the possible capacity flows through it, to Germany thirsty for gas for heating and industry.
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Now experts believe that Russia may be burning some of the large quantities of gas that it does not export. Russia has also cut off gas to a number of smaller countries, in addition to reducing gas flows to Germany and Italy. Experts described to the European media that in recent months they have located a massive fire of gas (Flaring), worth millions of dollars a day. The burned gas releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the fear is of an acute effect on the nearby Arctic region.
According to the “BBC”, which reported on the phenomenon, experts have detected consistent and high heat signatures on a regular basis since last summer at a plant connected to the Russian gas supply network in Portovia, near St. Petersburg. According to estimates, approximately 4 million cubic meters of gas are burned daily in the last few months. The German ambassador to the UK confirmed to the news network that it was Russian gas that was burned “because Russia cannot sell it elsewhere”. According to reports, Finnish residents across the border noticed a constant flame burning across the border. The plant is located close to the entry point to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
“I’ve never seen an LNG plant (Monzel gas produced at the Portovia plant) burn so much gas,” Dr. Jessica McCarthy, a satellite imagery expert at the University of Miami, told the BBC. “Since about June, we’ve seen the gas flaring coming to the peak, and since then she just kept going,” she added.
Unlike oil or coal, which are now exported in increasing quantities to India and China, Russia has no available option to increase natural gas exports without investing in new infrastructure to transport it eastward. According to experts’ estimates, it is possible that the excess gas that is not allocated to Europe was directed to the LNG plant, which was unable to cope with the increase in quantities, and therefore “Gazprom” burns it as an emergency solution.