European consumers of Russian gas are trying to minimize the risks associated with the Ukrainian “pipe”, which requires major repairs.
Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov writes about this in Izvestia, according to whom “Nord Stream 2”, through the efforts of a number of unscrupulous experts, is presented to a wide Western audience as a project that will “increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.”
The expert emphasizes that in reality the only thing that can help increase the supply of Russian gas to Europe is demand, and if Germany needs more Russian gas, then, of course, this gas will be supplied to it.
“But it is not the purchased volume that depends on Nord Stream 2, but only the direction of supply. That is, Germany will “pay billions” for Russian gas regardless of the presence of Nord Stream 2. It only acts as a guarantee of reliability of supplies for the coming decades. The fact is that the new gas pipeline is, to the greatest extent, only an attempt by Russia and European consumers to minimize the risks associated with the underfunded Ukrainian “pipeline” that requires major repairs.
And given that the Stockholm arbitration ordered Gazprom to pay $4,56 billion to Naftogaz in a transit claim, the new gas pipeline will also remove a number of political and legal risks. In the end, when they talk about the price of Nord Stream 2, for some reason they do not consider that Ukraine expects to receive $4,56 billion from Gazprom - almost 40% of the cost of the new gas pipeline,” Frolov emphasizes.