KNews.id- Russia is currently preparing countermeasures for a series of sanctions imposed by European countries. This is related to the White Bear Country’s attack on Ukraine.
One of the things that are not spared in Russia’s threat to Europe is energy. The Blue Continent is also currently in the shadow of a new energy crisis if Moscow cuts off its energy supply.
In a statement, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister (PM), Alexander Novak, said the planned cuts would be made to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. This gas pipeline is a pipeline that spans the Baltic Sea region.
“We have the right to take appropriate decisions and impose an embargo on pumping gas through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline,” Novak said at a press session last week as reported by Reuters.
Europe is known to depend a lot on its energy supply from Russia. In 2020, Russian gas flowing into Europe will reach 167.7 billion cubic meters. This amounts to 37.5% of Europe’s total natural gas imports, according to BP Statistics.It should be noted that natural gas supplies 20% of Europe’s electricity by 2020, so the role of gas as an energy source is quite vital for Europe. Data from the European Union’s Agency for Cooperation in Energy Regulators shows that supplies for some countries could suffer in the event of a freeze or embargo on Russian gas.
Citing CNNInternational, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Europe could not secure its energy supplies without imports from Russia. About 40% of European gas comes from the Red Bears, of which Germany, 32% of its gas sources, comes from Russia.
Not only Germany, a number of countries will also be affected. Call it Italy, Finland and Latvia, which have a dependence of over 90% on Russian gas. This also includes Italy which imports 46%. However, smaller countries such as North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova are at greater risk of an energy crisis.
Meanwhile the UK will probably be safer because half of its gas supply is sourced domestically and most of it imports from Norway and Qatar. Likewise, Spain is not on the list of Russia’s main customers because the country’s biggest trading partners are Algeria and the United States (US).
Russia itself is the world’s king of natural gas. More than a quarter of the world’s gas needs are supplied by Russia. To be precise, Russia has a 26.2% share of worldwide exports totaling 197.7 billion cubic meters, according to BP Statistical data.
Russia is also the second largest natural gas producer in the world with a contribution reaching 16.6% of natural gas production in 2020 with a total of 638.5 billion cubic meters. Its reserves reach 1,320.5 billion cubic meters, equivalent to 19.9% ​​of world reserves.An energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Nikos Tsafos, said that if gas supplies from Russia to Europe were cut off, it would be a “huge disaster”. He said the continent would experience a very fatal energy crisis.
“A complete cut off of Russia’s energy exports would be catastrophic. There is no way for Europe to replace that volume in a meaningful way,” he said. (AHM/cnn)
