Gazprom decided to use the capacity of the onshore part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (SP-2) for gassupply to the North-West of Russia. This was reported in the official Telegram channel of the company.
This statement means that Gazprom has assessed all threats from the EU regarding the refusal prospects refusal of Russian gas, says Artem Deev, head of the analytical department of AMarkets. SP-2 initially had a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, such supplies corresponded with Europe needs, where the consumption of natural gas is constantly growing. Two lines of the Nord Stream 2 IHL were built, but after May 2019 the project fell under restriction of The third EU energy package (supplies from Russia under the IHL should have been only 50%, the rest should come from third-party suppliers).
Thus, the power of SP-2 automatically halved – from 55 billion cubic meters per year to 27.5 billion cubic meters. If now Gazprom intends to use the ground infrastructure of one of the SP-2 lines for gasification of North- Western part of Russia, this means that the EU will be able to receive through the gas pipeline only 13.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year (four times less than the declared maximum capacity).
“For the payback of the project, this means that its terms will increase significantly,” the expert explained to Invest-Foresight. “For the regions of the North-West of our country, such a move means growth in gasification rate (now it is about 72%), together with a reduction in terms and saving of public funds on the construction of the necessary infrastructure.”