According to experts, Russia is flaring up large quantities of gas

About 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide are released every day. A Norwegian energy consultancy sees this as an environmental disaster.

According to experts, Russia is burning large quantities of natural gas in view of full depots and a sharp reduction in deliveries to the European Union. The newspaper said, on Friday, that a huge orange flame could be seen near the Finnish border. Norwegian energy consultancy Rystad describes this as an environmental disaster.

Rystad estimates the amount of gas flared up in the atmosphere at about 0.5 percent of the European Union’s daily needs. Consumption there has recently fallen dramatically due to the drop in deliveries.

The stunning glow 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 the alleged problems with turbine maintenance. On the other hand, the European Union accuses Russia of using the lack of gas supplies to defend itself against Western sanctions against Ukraine.

‘It’s hard to quantify’

Flaring is a common practice in oil and gas production. However, the range now observed is unusually high. According to experts, Russian warehouses are full, which is why large quantities are now simply burned. Russian Energy Corporation Gazprom He declined to comment when asked.

“It is difficult to accurately quantify the burn,” Rystad analysts wrote. “But it is assumed that they are moving at a level of about 4.34 million cubic meters per day.” This is equivalent to 1.6 billion cubic meters estimated for this year. The fire was first reported earlier this month in Finland, which borders Russia.

environmental disaster

According to the calculations of Professor Esa Vakkilainen of LUT University in Lappeenranta, Gazprom may have burned gas worth 1,000 euros per hour in the past two months. This damages the atmosphere. “It’s also a major environmental problem – especially for the Arctic, where this soot is definitely affecting global warming,” the expert said. Rystadt experts also see it this way. They stressed that “burning is an environmental disaster that releases about 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide every day.”

The German Foreign Ministry’s climate minister, Jennifer Morgan, recently appealed to Russia not to release any gas into the atmosphere. This would be “very, very harmful,” warned the former head of Greenpeace.

(APA/Reuters)