While the prices for gas and electricity have skyrocketed across Europe, a gas plant in Russia has been burning out of gas, or so-called torching, for two months. It is the liquefied natural gas (LNG) compression plant in Portovaya near the Finnish border. Analysts from the Norwegian analysis company Rystad tell the BBC that the amount of gas that is burned up is worth NOK 97 million per day. – Although we do not know the exact reasons for the flames, the volume, the emissions and the position are a clear reminder of Russia’s dominance over Europe’s energy market, says Sindre Knutsson in Rystad. – There could not have been a clearer way for Russia to show that they could have brought down Europe’s power prices tomorrow, Knutsson told the BBC. The Portovaya compression plant is located east of Vyborg on the Finnish border. Photo: Samuel Bailey CC BY 3.0 The Russian natural gas was previously exported to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, through the Baltic Sea. In recent months, gas exports to Germany have been down to 20 per cent. Russian Gazprom, which owns Nord Stream, claims that the drop in delivery is due to maintenance and technical problems. The flame visible in Finland The Portovaya power plant is located northwest of St. Petersburg and 38 kilometers from the Finnish border. The gas flame is visible from Finland. Gas exports through Nord Stream 1 have not been affected by the sanctions against Russia. When the gas is flared instead of being stored or piped, it may be due to technical problems. – That kind of long-lasting flame could mean that they lack some equipment, says professor of energy engineering Esa Vakkilainen at LUT University in Finland. – Because of the sanctions, Russia is not able to produce the high-quality valves necessary to process oil and gas. Maybe some of the valves are now broken and they are not able to replace them, says Vakkilainen to the BBC. Germany has become dependent on Russian gas, here Gerhard Schröder and Vladimir Putin open the gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 in Portovaya. Photo: ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / AFP Dependent on Russian gas Alongside coal and nuclear power, gas power is necessary to provide Europeans with electricity. And many EU countries depend on Russian gas. Before the invasion of Ukraine, 55 percent of the gas Germany needed came from Russia. Even if the Germans cut consumption and want to reopen coal-fired power plants, they are still dependent on Russia to fill up their gas reserves before winter. The Russian gas company Gazprom has announced that Nord Stream 1 will be closed for maintenance next week. Although the closure is only scheduled to last three days, the fear that the warehouse may run out has caused gas prices to skyrocket. – The worst scenario is that Russia turns off the tap completely. Then we won’t be able to add more Russian gas when we start to use up the stocks that are scheduled to be filled on 1 November. This is one of the reasons why the prices in the market are absolutely extreme now, says analyst Ole R. Hvalbye in the Swedish financial group SEB to Aftenposten. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre this week. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Norway wins on this – You can trust Norway, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when he visited Norway this week. Norway is now the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas to Europe. This gas has replaced some of the gas that previously came from Russia. Before the invasion of Ukraine, natural gas from Norway accounted for 20 percent of the gas imported into the EU. Russia has now cut exports by 80 per cent, while Norway has increased its gas production by 8 per cent this year. The lack of gas and the uncertain future have led to the price of gas doubling on the Dutch gas exchange since June. Talks about energy exports were an important topic when Scholtz and Jonas Gahr Støre met this week. – We must find new sources of energy to avoid being dependent on Russian fossil energy. But we must also prepare for the future and develop renewable energy, said Chancellor Scholz in the meeting with Støre.
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