Russia is wasting large volumes of natural gas by burning it in a huge orange glow near the Finnish border in correspondence with the drastic reduction in deliveries to the European Union. This is what gli analyst at Rystadan energy consultancy based in Norway, speaking of an ‘environmental disaster’ and estimated that the amount of gas burned in the atmosphere was equivalent to about 0.5% of the EU’s daily needs.
Russia has reduced flows through Nord Stream 1 to only 20% of capacity and plans to shut it down completely for three days next week, citing maintenance problems with the turbines. The EU accuses her of using gas as a weapon to counter Western sanctions against Ukraine.
“The exact levels of flaring volumes are difficult to quantify, but are believed to be at levels of around 4.34 million cubic meters per day. This is equivalent to 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) on an annual basis and is approximately 0.5% of the EU’s gas needs “, Rystad analysts remark.
Flaring is a common practice in oil and gas production, but the current level is unusually high.