Re: Nord Stream 2 Cannot Begin Operations Until Certified
This seems to be working quite well for Russia. It has dramatically driven up the price of LNG by desperate European buyers competing with the normal LNG customers. The LNG tanker fleet is of a fixed size and can not be increased in a season so prices have climbed. Russia ships plenty of LNG. Russia is able to collect a healthy premium for any non fixed contract gas. It runs its China(Power of Siberia) pipeline full blast as LNG is not competitive. Turkey also has great pipeline gas availability from Russia and can sell to southern Europe. Europe is painting themselves into a corner as the further we get into winter, the less time to replenish depleted reserves. Since they have a hostile relationship with Ukraine, minimizing gas flow through Ukrainian pipelines is survivable for Russia. I think they will simply wait it out and let the German government take the blame for high prices and tight supplies while watching European coal consumption climb to infuriate all the anti-fossil fuel greenies.