Skip to content
  • Trending Topics
    • COP27
    • Ukraine
    • Russia
    • Bulgaria
    • Energy
    • Natural Gas
  • International
    • European Policy
    • Germany
    • USA
    • France
    • China
    • Russia
    • Poland
  • Digital World
    • Digitization
    • Digital Policy
    • Date
    • Data Protection
  • Technological Innovation
    • Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cybersecurity
    • Platforms
    • Chips
    • Mobility
    • Car
  • Future of Energy
    • Energy
    • Energy Policy
    • Energy Prices
    • Energy Turnaround
    • Renewable Energy
  • Climate and Environment
    • Climate Protection
    • Climate Policy
    • Climate Targets
    • Green Deal
    • Sustainability
    • Emissions
    • Emissions Trading
  • Trade and Finance
    • Trade
    • Finance
    • Financial Policy
  • Categories
    • News
    • Feature
    • Opinion
    • Heads
    • Previous Issues
  • Europe.Table
    • About us: Europe.Table
    • Conferences and events
    • Subscribe
  • Table.Media
    • Table.Media
    • Africa.Table
    • Agrifood.Table
    • Berlin.Table
    • Bildung.Table
    • China.Table
    • Climate.Table
    • ESG.Table
    • Research.Table
    • Security.Table
    • 100Headlines.Table
    • Table.Heads – Das Entscheiderverzeichnis
Table.Media Logo
  • Feature
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Heads
  • Previous Issues
Login Try it for free
Logout
DE
  • share on Facebook
  • share on Twitter>
  • share on LinkedIn
  • share on Xing
  • share by e-mail
  • share on Whatsapp
Europe.Table #175 / 28. April 2022

Gas supply freeze: EU seeks solidarity response + fertilizers in short supply

Logo Table.Media
Professional Briefing
You are reading the preview edition.
To the complete edition.

To the German edition.
  • EU Commission calls gas freeze blackmail
  • Energy crisis and embargoes: why fertilizers are becoming increasingly scarce
  • Import duties on Ukrainian goods to be suspended
  • Rule of law proceedings against Hungary officially launched
  • OECD: countries make slow progress on sustainability goals
  • Commission: prepare for next phase of pandemic
  • Immigration of workers to be made easier
  • Rare SLAPP cases to be made more difficult
  • ECJ: platforms required to cooperate in tax cases
  • Paula Cipierre (Palantir): “We want to communicate transparently”
Dear reader,

“The tap has been turned off,” said Poland’s Climate Minister Anna Moskwa on Polish radio. Poland and Bulgaria have been without gas from Russia since yesterday. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Moscow’s actions “an attempt by Russia to blackmail us.” However, both countries had planned to phase out Russian gas anyway and serious supply bottlenecks were not to be feared, it was said after a crisis meeting in Brussels. Read Eric Bonse and Manuel Berkel‘s analysis of how the two countries are securing gas supplies now and in the future and what von der Leyen had to say about payments in rubles.

Fertilizer prices were already extraordinarily high in February. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, they have risen by a further 40 percent, according to the EU Commission. The problem is that many EU countries are also dependent on imports from Russia in this area. But these are now failing to materialize. In addition, high energy prices are driving up production costs for fertilizers. This could have a strong impact on food supplies, as Timo Landenberger reports. The German Farmers’ Association is already warning of drastic losses in harvests.

Your
Sarah Schaefer
Image of Sarah  Schaefer

Feature

EU Commission calls gas freeze blackmail

Following the halt in Russian gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, the EU Commission is defending itself against attempts at blackmail. Experts are making predictions about the effects on the affected states and transits to the rest of the EU.
By
Eric Bonse
Image of Eric Bonse

The situation in Poland and Bulgaria is under control, it was said after a crisis meeting in Brussels. Serious supply bottlenecks are not to be feared, said an EU diplomat. Poland and Bulgaria had planned to phase out Russian gas by the end of the year anyway. Poland would be affected by 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, but could get supplies from LNG terminals, and storage facilities in the country were 76 percent full, tweeted Bruegel expert Simone Tagliapietra.

Bulgaria is 90 percent dependent on Russian imports and storage levels are only 15 percent, but the imported volume from Russia is comparatively low at 3 bcm. Bulgaria has an interconnector with Romania and the IGB pipeline to Greece is scheduled to come on stream in September at the latest. Through it, 1 bcm per year is expected to flow from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria in the future. In addition, Bulgaria has already booked LNG deliveries through Greek ports, a spokesman for the Energy Ministry in Athens said yesterday. In total, the IGB has a capacity of 3 bcm, which can be increased to 5 bcm, according to the Athens newspaper Kathimerini.

Gas transit to other states is not affected by the steps taken against the Polish and Bulgarian companies, according to Tagliapietra and utility Uniper. So far, they see no major changes on the Yamal route, Uniper CCO Niek den Hollander told analysts. However, CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach warned of unpredictable reactions from Moscow in an interview with the German newspaper FAZ: “If the West decides to impose an oil embargo, it cannot be ruled out that the Russians will react with a gas supply freeze.”

  • Energy
  • European policy
  • Natural gas
  • Russia

Continue reading now

… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.

Continue free reading

Are you already a guest at the Europe.Table? Log in now

Follow us
  • follow
  • follow
  • Table.Media
  • Subscribe
  • Career
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Data Privacy
  • Imprint
Table.Media Logo © 2023 Table Media GmbH
Be our guest at the Europe.Table. Try it for free now, no automatic renewal.
Try it for free