Moscow and Washington are currently going over the possibility of restarting gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov informed Russias state-run Channel One on Wednesday.
Now, obviously, there are disagreements.
Is it just in the interests of Russia and the United States to bring back regular energy supply to Europe? The Nord Stream pipelines are being discussed, Lavrov said.
It will be interesting if the Americans utilize their influence on Europe and force it not to reject the Russian gas.
That would be surreal, he continued.Lavrov declared that fuel expenses are numerous times greater for Europe and its companies than for U.S.
companies.
Europe is facing a possible brand-new gas crisis after the continent burned an excess 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas this winter due to the cold weather, bringing the amount of gas in EU tank down to a three-year low of 35%.
In addition, Ukraine halted the transit of Russian gas to Europe on Jan.
1, removing another 10bcm of gas from the market.That gas has actually been sourced from someplace and the surviving strand of the Nord Stream pipeline might be turned on tomorrow and would bring 25bcm to Germany, making up the shortfall.In anticipation of the shortfall, the EU just recently recommended relaxing its rules needing gas tanks to be90% fullby Nov.
1 in order to prevent a surge in gas rates over the summer.The looming energy scarcity has actually caused broach resuming limited materials of Russian gas via the pipeline in current months.
One recommendation was to consist of restarting some pipeline gas delivery as a bargaining chip in the ongoing talks looking for an end to the war in Ukraine.However, numerous in Europe are adamantly opposed to purchasing any Russian energy.
At the same time, people like [German Vice Chancellor] Robert Habeck, [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen, [German Defense Minister] Boris Pistorius they all say that they will never enable the remediation of Nord Stream.
These individuals are either [psychologically] weak or self-destructive, the Russian foreign minister said.Despite Europes de facto restriction on buying Russian gas, imports rose by 14% in 2015, with roughly 35bcm coming to Europe through the southern TurkStream pipeline and another 48bcm arriving as LNG.
Altogether, Russia still accounts for around 15% of the EUs gas imports.
It will be intriguing if the Americans utilize their impact on Europe and will force it not to reject the Russian gas, Lavrov concluded.Following thenew Black Sea grain dealdiscussed on Tuesday, the U.S.
indicated that it wants to lift some sanctions as part of bargains with the Kremlin.This short article first appeared in bne IntelliNews.