{"id":389,"date":"2008-11-19T05:01:40","date_gmt":"2008-11-19T01:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=389"},"modified":"2008-11-26T05:33:28","modified_gmt":"2008-11-26T01:33:28","slug":"europe-urged-to-calculate-costs-of-nord-stream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/389\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe Urged to Re-evaluate Costs of Nord Stream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upstream Online<\/em> reports<\/a> of Russian threat to scrap the controversial Nord Stream pipeline project, which would supply Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Baltic states:<\/p>\n

Russia may ditch its Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, Nord Stream, and build gas liquefaction plants instead if Europe keeps delaying the pipeline, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today.<\/p>\n

“Europe must decide whether it needs this pipeline or not,” Putin told Finland’s Prime Minister, Matti Vanhanen, at a meeting in Moscow.<\/p>\n

“If you don’t we will build liquefaction plants and send gas to world markets, including to European markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it will be simply more expensive for you. You are free to make the calculations yourself,” he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Putin’s advice is sound, and I imagine that several European countries are doing just that.\u00a0 By purchasing Russian\u00a0LNG\u00a0on the open market, European consumers may well find themselves paying a financial premium, only in doing so they would be free from the risk of Russia\u00a0meddling with the supply.\u00a0 What’s more,\u00a0as the Arabs found with oil, it\u00a0would be\u00a0impossible to isolate any one country were LNG to be sold to the worldwide markets, meaning that the Baltic states – whose approval is required for Nord Stream to\u00a0be realised\u00a0– would find themselves with as much access to Russian gas as anyone else.\u00a0 It is hard to think of a reason why most European countries would not favour this option.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly Germany, having invested serious\u00a0political capital in the project,\u00a0is defending<\/a> Nord Stream:<\/p>\n

“The German government sees the Nord Stream pipeline as a central project to the future assurance of European and German gas provision,” Germany Economy Ministry said according to Reuters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To which the Baltic states and Poland might be entitled to respond with the question of “Which European states are you referring to?<\/em>”\u00a0 Germany is backing Nord Stream over LNG bought on the open market because it\u00a0will be\u00a0cheaper for Germans.\u00a0 That this will likely deny other European states – supposedly in a political\u00a0union with Germany – access to Russian gas seems to be a concern subordinate to Germany sourcing its own supply of cheap gas, as does any political risk Nord Stream may present in the form of Russia switching off the gas when it suits.<\/p>\n

Up until now, the choice has always been presented as between Europe buying Russian gas through a series of pipelines or not buying Russian gas at all.\u00a0 Now with a gas OPEC<\/a> between Russia, Qatar, and Iran looking like a real possibility<\/a>, Russia has introduced the option (which would make a gas\u00a0cartel more feasible) of selling its gas as LNG on the open market.\u00a0 European countries will need no urging from Putin to carry out calculations as to the benefits this arrangement would bring, and it is unlikely that many will be convinced that Germany’s backing of the pipeline is motivated by anything other than self interest at the expense of others.<\/p>\n

In a few years time we may look back at Putin’s remarks as being the moment when Nord Stream was killed off before it ever really got going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upstream Online reports of Russian threat to scrap the controversial Nord Stream pipeline project, which would supply Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, bypassing the Baltic states: Russia may ditch its Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, Nord Stream, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}