Denmark has given the green light to preservation work on the damaged Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. A unit of Russia’s Gazprom will carry out the work, not to immediately resume pipeline use (halted in 2022) but to reduce environmental and safety risks, the Danish energy agency said.
This activity will still likely frustrate Poland, whose government believes gas flows from Russia to Western Europe should never be restored.
President Andrzej Duda said this week that the gas pipelines “should be dismantled.”
I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that they will push through a decision to never restore the pumping of gas through this pipeline.
EU diplomats have since effectively revealed that they would support this stance, but only once alternative supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been sourced. One stressed that
First you have to have a deal because otherwise you will be left without gas from Russia and without the U.S.
The head of German utility Uniper also said today that increasing imports of U.S. LNG would help European traders diversify their supply, according to Reuters. But not, of course, if the continent at the same time blocked the Russian supply line from ever being restored, as its leaders are considering doing.
Donald Trump overturned Joe Biden’s freeze on new LNG export permits on his first day in office, and has said he wants Europe to buy more American gas. But reports reckon that major new capacity will not be available for another five years. And should Trump’s successor again reduce U.S. LGN export capacity, the energy supply of Europe—were it to follow Poland’s demand and turn its back on Russia for good—could really come unstuck.
