Flames Sighted Over Nord Stream 1: Is Russia Burning Excess Gas?

Created: 08/05/2022, 12:32 p.m

By: Felix Durach

Only 20 percent of the original gas volumes now flow through Nord Stream 1.

But reports are now making people sit up and take notice: Does Russia have to burn excess gas?

Moscow – Europe is groaning under the gas crisis.

Even after the maintenance work on the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline, gas will only be delivered to Germany to a limited extent.

Initially, Moscow delivered 40 percent of the original pipeline capacity as before the maintenance.

A few days after the maintenance, however, the Kremlin reduced the supply to 20 percent of normal capacity.

Gas crisis: Gazprom throttles deliveries - vortex around required turbine

What followed was an outright farce about the reasons for the throttling, and it's still going on.

Moscow cites the lack of a necessary gas turbine, which would limit operations.

This same turbine has meanwhile been delivered to Germany from Canada, but is now stuck in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

The Kremlin reiterated that importing the turbine to Russia was not possible due to the sanctions imposed.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz saw the turbine for himself on Wednesday.

"The reduction in gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 (...) has no technical reasons whatsoever," the Chancellor explained clearly afterwards.

New escalation in gas supplies - is Russia burning excess gas?

In the already heated debate about Russian gas supplies, a further level of escalation could now threaten.

As it became known, powerful flames have been visible for more than a month on the site of the compressor station in Portovaya, where the Baltic Sea pipeline begins.

This was first reported by the Finnish public broadcaster yle.

According to the reports, the flames are so big that they can also be observed from the Finnish side without any problems.

Several residents of the border region therefore confirmed the sighting.

There are also several posts on Twitter that show the alleged fire above the plant.

However, the authenticity of the images cannot currently be independently verified.

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Satellite data show: Ever since gas was cut, there have been repeated fires on Gazprom's premises

However, the data from the Fire Information for Resource Management Systems (FIRMS) from the US space agency Nasa also give another indication of the fire.

These show that from June 17 of this year fires have been burning on the site of the compressor station every day.

The

also reported it .

FIRMS provides near real-time data on active fires around the world using satellite imagery.

The point in time at which the flames were first sighted makes one sit up and take notice.

The start of the fire coincides almost to the day with the throttling of Russian gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 to 40 percent.

The throttling was announced on June 15th and implemented on June 16th.

Since then, the system has reported major fires in the area of ​​the plant on a daily basis.

However, the number and extent of the fires vary from day to day.

Is Russia burning gas on the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1?

(Iconic image) © Stefan Sauer/dpa

Flames above a compressor station are nothing unusual at first.

At the stations, the gas is compressed and fed into the pipeline.

If there are technical problems or malfunctions, gas can be burned directly on site and the gas pressure can thus be kept constant.

The same procedure can be used if the supplier cannot deliver the full amount of gas available or the recipient cannot receive the full amount.

Gas crisis: How much does Russia itself suffer from reduced supply volumes?

So if the fires were actually due to the controlled burning of Russian gas, that would shed further light on the current situation in Russia.

The circumstances would suggest that Russia would also face financial disadvantages as a result of the cut in gas supplies.

Should Gazprom not be able to sell the excess gas that is no longer supplied to Germany to other interested parties, direct incineration of the gas supplies at the Portovaya compressor station would be a possible solution.

If the throttling of gas deliveries is actually due to the lack of the turbine stored in Germany, Moscow would also accept significant losses by preventing delivery.