LNG

Russian natural gas company Gazprom said exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union were down more than 33 percent year-on-year in the 2022 period from January through July 15 as the Nord Stream I pipeline to Germany was closed for a seventh day of a scheduled 10 days of maintenance.

GRTgaz, the French natural gas transmission company with three liquefied natural gas import terminals under its control through subsidiary Elengy, said it had seen a shortfall in Russian supplies and this was being offset with LNG cargoes and additional pipeline flows from Norway.

“We are not currently experiencing any difficulties in supplying or transporting gas over the French network,” said GRTGaz.

“Onshore gas inputs from northeast France, the location at which Russian pipeline gas arrives in the country, are continuing, but at levels below those seen in previous years,” explained the company, headquartered at Bois-Colombes in the northwest suburbs of Paris.

“This decrease is being offset by sustained supplies of LNG, as well as pipeline gas supplies from Norway,” stated GRTGaz.

The company noted that the European Union natural gas market was potentially fast-changing and GRTGaz was making sure that it had solutions for all eventualities.

“As France's main gas transport operator, GRTgaz is part of the system in place to ensure a secure supply,” explained the company.

“As such, it works closely alongside the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, supervising the situation,” it added.

Emergency options

GRTGaz was also working with other French and European gas infrastructure companies, under the supervision of the public authorities, on developing solutions should Russian gas supplies cease.

“We aim to be able to maintain our storage levels over the forthcoming months and provide consumers with gas until next winter,” it stated.

“We are also working with those of our clients who might find themselves affected, ensuring that the measures in place in the event of load-shedding for consumers on the transport and distribution networks being required are properly shared. These measures would only be applicable as a last resort,” declared GRTGaz.

GRTgaz said in its annual review that terminal subsidiary Elengy received 176 LNG cargoes in 2021 at the three terminals in Western and Southern France at Montoir-de-Bretagne, Fos Tonkin and Fos Cavaou. France's fourth import terminal is at the Channel port of Dunkirk.

The terminals also handled six cargo re-loadings, 10 trans-shipments and 14,715 tanker truck LNG loadings during the year.

GRTgaz ensures the pipeline transportation of gas throughout France, though in the southwest the grid is run by regional network company Teréga.

GRTgaz had been receiving fewer transits last year, whether to Spain, which benefited from very sustained supplies from Algeria or to Switzerland (and Italy), which benefited from the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to southern Italy.

Large network

GRTgaz is the EU’s second-largest European natural gas transporter after Italy with 32,500 kilometres of pipelines and 640 terawatt hours of gas transported in 2021.

The Italian natural gas pipeline network is almost 50,000km in length.

The other GRTgaz subsidiaries include GRTgaz Deutschland, operator of the German MEGAL transmission network.

The MEGAL pipeline system is 1,160km in length and runs from the German-French border at Medelsheim via the Czech Republic's border point with Germany at Waidhaus to the bi-directional cross-border point at the German-Austrian border in Oberkappel.

The MEGAL pipeline system consists of two pipelines: the MEGAL Nord (North) pipeline and the MEGAL Süd (South) pipeline.

France’s Commission de Régulation de l'Energie (CRE) has given the go-ahead for a further increase in the cost of imported natural gas, leading to an immediate jump in regulated domestic sales tariffs as costs rise for utilities all over Europe.

The Russian-led Nord Stream II pipeline project to supply natural gas to the European Union via Germany in competition to LNG, said it was now starting the commissioning process and introducing first gas.

The Nord Stream II company, whose shareholders include Russian gas giant Gazprom and five European partners, said in a statement that it would begin filling the first of the two pipelines in the project with natural gas.

“The offshore sections of the first gas pipeline laid from the Russian side to Germany are now interconnected,” said the Nord Stream II project company

“The commissioning works to fill the first gas pipeline with gas will begin,” it said.

“Offshore pipe-laying works on the second pipeline are ongoing. All activities are in accordance with the respective permits,” stated the Nord Stream II company, registered in Switzerland.

Both pipelines run on the seabed of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, by-passing Ukraine, which hosted the first land-based gas links to West Germany begun in the 1970s.

The Russian-led Nord Steam II project, supported by Germany in particular among EU nations, has faced criticism from the US for increasing European reliance on Russian gas

Nord Steam II is costing €9.5 billion ($11.6Bln) to complete and its shareholders in addition to Gazprom include Royal Dutch Shell as well as German utility Uniper, German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea, Austrian energy company OMV and French utility Engie.

The second pipeline of the Nord Stream II project is almost complete and the whole project would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream I pipeline to 110 billion cubic metres of gas per annum of imports into the EU.

The 1,230-kilometres double-pipeline links under the Baltic made landfall at the northern German coastal town of Lubmin, near Greifswald after starting from the Russian port of Vyborg, near Ust-Luga.

The US had previously criticised the pipeline by-passing Ukraine and depriving that nation of transit fees while increasing EU energy reliance on the Russians.

Analysts note that LNG imports will be affected, especially shipments from the US which use Europe as a destination when demand in Asia passes the winter peak.

Pipeline gas is Germany's preferred option as it will enable the shutting of its large coal-fired power plants.

It is the only major economy in the EU not to import LNG, though two terminal projects are in the development stages.

The Nord Stream II pipeline will also strengthened the position of Russian pipeline gas against Norwegian supplies to the EU from the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea.

The first Nord Stream project under the Baltic to supply gas to the EU was inaugurated in November 2011 and also comprising two pipelines. 

German oil and gas major Wintershall Dea has expressed confidence various projects bringing pipeline natural gas supplies from Russia and Norway in the face of no competition as yet in the largest European Union economy from LNG shipments.