There are three things you probably fear reading about these days.
The outcome of your college midterm exams, the daily news, and your gas and electric
bill.
For the first two, nothing to say: it happens.
As for the rising bills, yes, that happens too, but for specific reasons.
And you’re not too wrong.
When we talk about gas and electricity we are referring to what provides us with a basic
standard of living: heating, hot water, electricity and gas for cooking.
In short, your domestic hearth.
Not to mention, of course, those factories who cannot work without gas and electricty.
Let's start with the harsh reality: the entire European Union is not self-sufficient in energy,
which means a dense network of imports.
Of course, if Norway was an EU country, we might consider it an anomaly: over there they
produce plenty of gas.
One hundred and one billion cubic meters of gas in 2020 (BP plc)...which they don't even
use.
They make do with only 4 billion, since they manage to get by with hydroelectricity and
burning churches.
In fact, in 2020 they exported something like one hundred and ten billion cubic meters of
gas.
There is actually a European champion for gas production.
Or rather there was.
We're talking about the Netherlands, which a decade ago was around 70 billion cubic meters
of gas produced.
There’s a small problem however: a bit like the Dwarves of Moria, the Dutch have dug too
deep, causing seismic damage related to drilling.
The large Groningen plant will close soon but the production has already been drastically
reduced down to 20 billion cubic meters.
And If there's a fourth thing you would absolutely not want to see, this is the map of the gas
pipelines that cross the old continent.
Where (and how) do these billions of cubic meters of gas arrive in the homes of us Europeans?
Non-European natural gas came 43.9% from Russia, 19.9% from Norway, 11.9% from Algeria, 5.5%
from UK, 5.0% from USA and a remaining 13.8% from other countries such as Azerbaijan, Qatar,
Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago.
These are the main countries that extract and sell their gas to us today, both in natural
form and LNG, i.e. liquefied gas.
The undisputed queen, or rather the czarina, is Russia.
Much of the gas exported to the old continent is extracted from the fields of the Yamal
peninsula in northwestern Siberia.
It is here that we find the famous "taps", more precisely near the pleasant town of Novyj
Urengoy.
And here the mess begins.
From Novyj urengoy the Northern Lights pipeline starts and proceeds unhindered to the town
of Torzhok, north-west of Moscow.
Here two things happened: the pipeline continued towards Belarus, on the Smolensk-Minsk directive,
where it split: one part continues north, towards Lithuania and then Kaliningrad, another
part south, towards western Ukraine.
At Torzhok, the Northern Lights pipeline also joins a second pipeline, the Yamal-Europe,
which passes through Minsk and Poland to the German border at Lebus, where it joins the
German JAGAL system.
The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzghorod, known as the Brotherhood, also departs from Novyj Urengoy,
a 4,400 km long snake that crosses the Ukraine and reaches the Slovakian border, in parallel
with the Soyuz, which departs to the south, from Orenburg.
On the one hand, there's Belarus, through which the gas that feeds Germany and therefore
north-western Europe passes, and on the other, there's Ukraine, the gateway through which
the traffic for Balkan and southern Europe flows.
But there is more.
Yep, in fact, a branch of the Brotherhood flows to Novopskov, in the Luhansk People's
Republic, from which it then reconnects to the Ukrainian network up to Kiev, crossing
practically the whole country.
But let's pretend that in donbass everything is regular and no war is going on, there are
other Russian routes that reach Europe bypassing Ukraine and Belarus.
Well, Europe up to a certain point if we talk about the Turkstream pipeline, which from
Anapa, on the shores of the Black Sea with a privileged view on Crimea, sinks to reach
Turkey, at Ipsala, where it evolves into Turkstream 2 running up the continent to Hungary.
The same applies to the Blue Stream, which crosses the Black Sea from the Izobilny plant
to reach Ankara directly.
The Anatolian corridor is of particular interest, especially for us Italians, since we rely
on around 40% on the Russian gas.
We are talking about the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline, the TAP, active since the end of
2020 that will connect Italy, more precisely the receiving terminal of Melendugno in Apulia,
straight to the rich field of Shah Deniz, in Azerbaijan, on the coast of the Caspian
Sea.
The TAP passes through Albania and crosses Greek Macedonia to Kipoi on the Turkish border.
There it connects to TANAP, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline all the way to Georgia, where it
finally attaches to the South-Caucasian Pipeline, the end of this straw that feeds our country
with Azeri gas.
In 2021, 7 billion cubic meters passed through Melendugno.
But we’re not done with Russia: we need to talk about Nord Steam.
Active since 2011, Nord Stream creates a direct supply line between Vyborg, Russia, and Greifswald,
Germany, passing under the Baltic Sea.
Attaching to the Gryazovets-Vyborg pipeline, Nord Stream feeds some of the gas that passes
through the Northern Light.
Something like 55 billion cubic meters per year can pass through Nord Stream, although
some European sanctions on Gazprom have reduced its actual capacity by half.
What's the deal, let's just build another one, right?
In September, the controversial project of Nord Stream 2 was completed, an almost parallel
pipeline (instead of Vyborg it connects to Ust-Luga) that would double the direct supply
capacity of Germany from Russia with aroud one hundred and ten billion cubic meters if
all goes well.
And why should anything ever go wrong?
Well, the list of views against this Nord Stream 2 is quite long.
And then we should also consider that The Nord Stream 2 company, based in Switzerland
went bankrupt the day before yesterday.
Thank you sanctions.
First of all, the project contradicts the common energy policy that the European Union
is trying to pursue, diversifying its supplies to free itself from Russian dependence.
Russia, on the contrary, would see in the potential of Nord Stream 1 and 2 an alternative
channel to the compulsory steps of Belarus and especially Ukraine.
This would offer Moscow a fearsome weapon of blackmail and influence on its neighbors.
It is not only Ukraine that's involved, because Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland are all
in this game...
Putin could knock on Kiev's door and impose his conditions.
Otherwise: no more gas through Ukraine, because me - Russia - can bring it straight to Germany.
Diversification doesnt mean simply changing course, but finding other suppliers.
There is, however, another detail, rather disturbing.
The company that will operate the new pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG based in Switzerland is totally
owned by Gazprom International Projects LLC, a branch of Gazprom itself.
Nord Stream 2 AG is all that remains of the joint venture formed by, in addition to Gazprom,
E.ON, Shell, Wintershall, OMV and Engie, a consortium later blocked by the Polish antitrust
authorities.
These former partners are now outside Nord Stream 2 AG, but they have given substantial
amounts of money as "sponsors".
The management of Nord Stream 2 by Gazprom alone, in addition to giving even more centrality
to Russia, would go against the European energy policies that prevent suppliers from controlling
the energy transmission networks.
And one of the first nations to risk the consequences of Nord Stream 2 is Poland.
But Poland has already run for cover.
Yes, because, fortunately for Europe, next to the monopolized Baltic Sea there is another
sea, rich in deposits: the North Sea.
This year, work should begin on the Baltic Pipe, a pipeline that will connect the northern
coasts of Poland to the heart of the North Sea, passing through Denmark, and attaching
itself to the network with which Norway supplies Western Europe and the United Kingdom.
And here we come to our two "not too much European country": What the UK and Norway
have done in the North Sea may at first seem like a complete mess.
The North Sea is full of gas fields that the two countries have long shared, but Norway
also has rich deposits close to the Arctic, in the waters north of Trondheim.
As we have seen, Norway exports almost all of the gas it extracts, and pipelines to the
UK depart from the Arctic, such as the Langeled pipeline to Loftus, on the coast of North
Yorkshire, and the parallel Ormen Lange Field-Easington pipeline.
The coasts between Bergen and Stavanger represent a real hub where gas extracted from the northern
North Sea and the Arctic is redirected to continental Europe, through pipelines such
as Zeepipe (in Belgium) or Europipe II, which connects Stavanger to the Dutch coast.
Holland and Belgium are, however, largely supplied by the many Norwegian extraction
sites located in the southern waters of the North Sea.
And Then there is the United Kingdom, which has some problems.
It extracts plenty of gas compared to the European average, in 2020 it was about 40
billion cubic meters, but it consumed almost twice as much, 72 billion according to Eurostat.
The biggest problem, however, is the lack of an adequate storage network.
This is why UK has few supplies.
This is also due to the shutdown of the Rough plant in 2017, which alone for 30 years accounted
for 70% of the country's storage capacity.
In any case, there are 3 main hubs towards which the flows of British gas and imported
quotas from Norway are condensed: Aberdeen, North Yorkshire and Bacton, in North Norfolk.
From these three nodal points the UK national network is supplied.
This includes as well the three main terminals from which LNG is exported and imported by
sea: Milford Haven, in Wales, the Grain LNG terminal, on the island of Grain, in Kent
and in Middlesborough.
For many, LNG is a solution to the excessive dependence on Russian gas.
A solution that is certainly more expensive than transportation by pipelines, but more
adaptable and no longer bound by geographical proximity.
But it does not have only positive aspects.
Yeah sure, it is fine to replace Russia and Nord Stream, but the arrival of ships loaded
with LNG from the United States also has repercussions on the honest Norwegian exporters.
If the Russian pipeline policy is threatening the European geopolitical and economic balance,
the American involvement is no less.
In the LNG routes not only the United States are involved, of course.
Spanish ports, Marseille, Rotterdam, Athens...these are the main destinations of LNG coming from
Qatar, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago.
Even we Italians, so thirsty for gas, have important LNG import terminals, in La Spezia,
Livorno and in the Adriatic Sea.
Adriatic Sea which is well supplied with fields that are not much exploited by our workforce.
After all, it looks awful to go to the sea and see the Italian floating stations on the
horizon, much better the Croatian ones, right?
We Italians have also another interesting rout in the Mediterranean Sea: in the heart
of the Algerian desert lies the largest African gas field: Hassi R'mel.
This gas oasis is the starting point for three very important gas pipelines for southern
Europe: on the one hand, there are the two Maghreb-Europe and Medgaz pipelines, which
cross Morocco and the Mediterranean to supply Spain.
On the other, the Trans Mediterranean pipeline, which crosses Tunisia and arrives in Sicily,
at Mazara del Vallo, and then climbs the entire peninsula, as far as Slovenia.
From Libya, on the Tripoli-Gela route, comes the Greenstream.
There is also the interesting project of GALSI (Gas Pipeline Algeria Sardinia Italy) that
from the Algerian Gulf of Annaba should bring gas to Sardinia and from there to Tuscany.
But the southern route does not end in Africa.
There has been talk for some years of a gas pipeline, the East Med, which from the fields
in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Israel should run to Greece between Crete
and the Peloponnese, and then it shoudl enter our Adriatic Sea through the Poseidon pipeline,
up to Otranto.
Erdogan permitting: the Turks have different views on Cyprus fields, as well as a different
understanding of Exclusive Economic Zones in the Mediterranean Sea.
So we have come to the end of this exciting trip up and down Europe.
"Exciting".
Rising bills could be a rather long-lasting reality if certain measures are not taken,
but I am certainly not the best person to explain them to you.
I leave you some links in the description, so you can have a look at the European gas
pipeline mess.
This video could have been much worse.
In the meantime I just say thank you for listening to me until the end and see you next time.
Ciao.