Sergey Kondratiev commented to Gazeta.ru on Russian gas supplies to Europe.
The burning of the flare near the Portovaya station on the Russian-Finnish border may be caused by the desire of Gazprom to burn excess fuel, which the company cannot redirect to Europe due to a reduction in the level of pumping through Nord Stream 1. This opinion was expressed in a conversation with Gazeta.Ru by Sergei Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance.
However, he added that usually excess gas is flared directly at gas fields, for example, at the Yamal field. In this case, the company does not have to spend money on gas transportation and MET payments.“I don't know what kind of torch it might be. But I can admit that the surplus gas is burning, which Gazprom expected to supply through SP-1, but due to idle gas turbines, is forced to dispose of it in this way,” Kondratiev suggested.
“If we assume that gas is transported to Portovaya and then flared, then this is a very unprofitable strategy for Gazprom. The monopolist produces gas in Yamal. As soon as the fuel is sent to the gas transmission system, Gazprom must pay the MET. It also has to pay operating costs for extraction and transportation. The amounts are significant. Therefore, we can say that in this case the monopolist burns its own money,” Kondratiev concluded.
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