European anxieties about the safety of infrastructure supplying natural gas to the continent took a further rattling on Oct. 13 after a bomb threat against the Nyhamna processing facility in central Norway.
Operated by Shell Plc, gas is piped to the onshore Nyhamna facility from Norway’s Ormen Lange deepwater facility off the coast, and supplies around 20% of the UK’s gas needs.
The threat turned out to be a hoax, with the country’s grid operator confirming there was no disruption to gas transport, output was normal, and workers had returned to the site.
Benchmark gas futures on the Dutch TTF in Amsterdam jumped as much as 9.2% on fears over the Norwegian projects, and the UK equivalent contract as much as 12%.By close on Oct. 13, the TTF front-month contract (currently November) had eased back to €153.86 per megawatt-hour (MWh), down 3.952% on the day. The UK front-month (also November) has eased 5.75% by close, to finish at 277 UK pence/therm.
“Any concerns over Norwegian deliveries, which have become Europe’s largest single source of gas supply since Russia’s weaponization of gas exports, will play into very significant price spikes,” said Energy Aspects consultancy’s Head of European Gas James Waddell, as cited by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Russian state-owned gas major Gazprom PJSC has said repairing the damaged Nord Stream pipelines would take at least a year, and that Russia still had not been granted access to the area of damage.
Gazprom Head Alexey Miller made the comments on Oct. 12 at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow, as cited by a Reuters report.
Four leaks were detected on Sept. 26 and 27 on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which run parallel with each other under the Baltic Sea carrying Russian gas to Europe via Germany, after explosions were heard (GM Sept. 30, p. 1). Two of the leaks were in Danish waters and two in Swedish waters north of the Danish Island of Bornholm.
Several governments believed the damage was “deliberate” and “an act of sabotage,” with many pointing the finger at Moscow. Swedish investigators completing their preliminary investigation last week said detonations caused the ruptures to the pipelines, “with evidence pointing to a deliberate act,” according to a Bloomberg report (GM Oct. 7, p. 1).
Sweden, Denmark, and Germany late this week were reported to have voided a joint Nord Stream probe, opting to do their own investigations, citing concerns over the investigation’s secrecy, according to a Prime news report.
While the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines had not been transporting gas, both contained gas at the time of the leaks.
The Kremlin said claims that Russia was behind a possible attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines were “predictably stupid.”
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Russian Energy Week conference, said any energy infrastructure in the world is at risk, and reiterated the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines were “an act of terror” that set “the most dangerous precedent,” Bloomberg reported.
Putin blamed the sabotage to the Nord Stream pipelines on the US, Ukraine, and Poland, calling them “beneficiaries” of the blasts that caused the gas leaks, according to the report.
The president said Russia is ready to supply gas to Europe via a second thread of Nord Stream 2. But any start of flows through the pipeline would require approval from the European Union and remains unlikely amid the deepening tensions between Moscow and the West.
Russian gas flows through Nord Stream 1, the key pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe via Germany, have been halted since Aug. 31 (GM Sept. 2, p. 35), while Nord Stream 2 has never started up commercial operation.
The Gazprom head at the Russian Energy Week conference warned Europe of the consequences of renouncing Russian gas, saying the continent “could still freeze” during a severe cold snap this winter despite the continent having almost filled its gas storage facilities, Bloomberg reported.
Citing the work of unidentified analysts, Miller said during days of peak winter demand, Europe could lack some 800 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, or one third of its total consumption.
Russia has been cutting gas deliveries to the continent for some months amid deteriorating relations between the West and Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom previously supplied Europe between 600 million and 1.7 billion cubic meters per day during the period of peak winter demand, Miller said, as cited by the Bloomberg report.