A huge orange blaze could be seen near the Finnish border, scientists and analysts said on Friday. The Norwegian energy consultancy Rystad describes this as an environmental catastrophe. Rystad estimates the amount of gas flared in the atmosphere at around 0.5 percent of the EU’s daily requirement. Consumption there has recently fallen significantly as a result of the reduced deliveries.
The spectacular flare can be seen in satellite images near Portovaya, the site of a compressor station for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which runs through the Baltic Sea to Germany. Russia has reduced Nord Stream 1’s flow rate to 20 percent of capacity and plans to shut down the pipeline for three days next week. This is justified with alleged problems with the maintenance of the turbines. The EU, on the other hand, accuses Russia of using the lack of gas supplies to defend itself against Western sanctions against Ukraine.
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quantities difficult to quantify
Flaring is a common practice in oil and gas production. However, the extent now observed is unusually high. According to experts, the Russian warehouses are full, which is why large quantities are now simply burned. The Russian energy company Gazprom declined to comment when asked.
“The exact amount of flaring is difficult to quantify,” Rystad analysts wrote. “But it is assumed that they are moving at a level of around 4.34 million cubic meters per day.” This corresponds to 1.6 billion cubic meters extrapolated for the year. The flaring was first reported earlier this month in Finland, which borders Russia.
“An Environmental Disaster”
According to calculations by Professor Esa Vakkilainen of the LUT University in Lappeenranta, Gazprom may have burned gas worth €1,000 an hour in the past two months. That damages the atmosphere. “It’s also a big environmental problem – especially for the North Pole region, where this soot definitely has an impact on global warming,” the expert said. The Rystadt experts also see it that way. “The flaring is an environmental disaster that releases around 9,000 tons of CO2 every day,” they stressed.
Climate Secretary in the German Foreign Ministry, Jennifer Morgan, recently appealed to Russia not to release any gas into the atmosphere. That would be “very, very harmful,” warned the former Greenpeace boss.
Source: Nachrichten
