A serious accident occurred on the same day in the Beixi No. 1 and No. 2 pipeline. Is it an accidental coincidence or intentional by some external forces?
Russia recently said that the two natural gas pipelines "North Stream-1" and "North Stream-2" leading to Europe both experienced a sharp drop in pressure on the same day. Among them, the pipeline pressure of "Beixi-2" has been reduced from the previous 300 bar to 7 bar, which is close to the level of 7 standard atmospheric pressure. In addition, relevant institutions have detected leaked pipeline gas in the waters near Denmark . As of now, the cause of the accident is under investigation.
(Road map of "Beixi-1" and "Beixi-2" pipelines)
First of all, we need to make it clear that due to Western sanctions, Russia has closed two natural gas pipelines, "Beixi-1" and "Beixi-2". However, the gas shutdown does not mean that there is no natural gas in the pipeline. Instead, because these pipelines are underwater, a certain amount of natural gas needs to be injected regularly to avoid them being damaged by the water pressure of seawater.
But to be honest, neither Europe nor Russia actually don’t want to see an accident in the Nord Stream pipeline. Putin Although this trick of using energy to counter the West is "ruthless", it also has to pay a huge price. After the complete suspension of Nord Stream-1, the Russian government not only reduced the annual revenue of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas, but also spent more than 10 million US dollars a day to incinerate and treat excess natural gas.
So Putin had previously stated that as long as the West can lift sanctions on "North Stream-2", Russia can continue to transport natural gas to Europe. In addition, the Russian government has expressed similar attitudes on several diplomatic occasions. It can be said that without political obstacles, Russia would definitely hope that the Nord Stream pipeline would be aired as soon as possible. After all, oil and gas exports are the main source of Russia's fiscal revenue.
And for Europe, the situation is even more serious. If there is a problem with the Nord Stream pipeline, then an important tool for Russia-European reconciliation will be gone. Europe will face this winter without Russian natural gas at all. "The spring river water warms the duck prophet", as the group most sensitive to energy prices, ordinary Europeans are already very dissatisfied with the current situation, and this dissatisfaction is gradually rising with the decline of temperature.
htmlOn September 25, a large number of German people held protests and demonstrations, demanding that EU lift sanctions on Russia and restart the "North Stream-1" and "North Stream-2" pipelines as soon as possible. Protesters said that energy prices in Europe are now unreasonable, and that only by lifting sanctions on Russia can this problem be fundamentally solved. It is worth mentioning that Germany is currently in a cold rainy season, and the temperature in the capital Berlin has dropped to 10 degrees.
topic returns to the issue of leakage in the Nord Stream pipeline. Some Russian media speculated that the two Nordic natural gas pipelines are currently in a state of stopping their work and are unlikely to be leaked due to their own failures. Moreover, the two Nordic pipelines experienced a sharp drop in pressure on the same day, which is too coincidental in time. As the saying goes, "There is no so-called coincidence in the world, there is only necessity." Therefore, Russian media speculated that the two Nordic pipelines may have been artificially damaged. Who destroyed
? We can't see any evidence yet, so we can only wait for the accident investigation results to come out. But let’s think about it carefully: Who would most like to see the Nord Stream Pipeline stop working? Who would most like to see a complete breakup between Russia and Europe? And who can get the most benefits from it? USA? Ukrainian ? Polish ? The answer is obviously self-evident.
Here we share two sets of data with you. First, data from the International Energy Agency in June this year showed that the United States supplied natural gas to Europe exceeded Russia for the first time, and the United States' exports of liquefied natural gas have now jumped to the top in the world.
Second, an American energy expert said that filling a whole ship in the United States only costs $60 million, while the average acquisition price in Europe is as high as $275 million. According to calculations, American companies can make more than $150 million per batch of LNG freight bills.
Winter is coming, and many European people originally expected that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict would end before winter, so that the West could lift sanctions on Russia, re-transport Russian natural gas to Europe, and stabilize energy prices.
From now on, not only is the Russian-Ukrainian conflict a trend of further escalation, but it is unlikely to end before winter, but the break between Russia and Europe seems to be irreversible. This Beixi natural gas pipeline accident is probably just one of the straws that overwhelmed the camel.
