The Turkstream gas pipeline, the last route to transport Russian gas to Europe, has been attacked. “The kyiv regime tried to attack with nine drones” a gas distribution station in the Krasnodar region (southwest of Russia), “in order to suspend gas deliveries to European countries”the Russian army said in a statement.
The attack “did not cause any injuries” among the staff of this compression station located in the locality of Gaï-Kodzor. The debris from one of the downed drones, however, slightly damaged a building and some equipment, according to the same source. After the attack, “the compressor station ensures the delivery of gas to the TurkStream gas pipeline normally”said the Russian army.
Inaugurated in 2020, the TurkStream gas pipeline is capable of transporting 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas each year. It is made up of two parallel tubes some 930 km long which connect Anapa, in the Krasnodar region in Russia, to Kiyiköy in Turkey (northwest). Passing under the Black Sea, it allows Russia to supply southeastern and southern Europe by bypassing Ukraine, initially a key country for the transit of Russian gas delivered to Europe.
Last route to Europe
This gas pipeline and its Balkan Stream extension now constitute the last route for transporting Russian gas to Europe. Indeed, since January 1, the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine has definitively ceased, the contract signed between the two parties at the end of 2019 having expired. It had been maintained despite the Russian offensive in Ukraine which had been underway for around three years. This end of the transit is “ one of Moscow’s greatest defeats », the Ukrainian president welcomed at the beginning of January.
This stop concerns almost a third of total Russian gas deliveries to Europe and worries several Eastern European countries, notably Moldova, particularly vulnerable, and Slovakia which has warned of serious consequences. Europe, however, continues to buy Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), imported by LNG tankers, even if it says it wants to free itself from all natural gas coming from Russia by 2027.
« Europe manages to do without Russian gas via Ukraine, prices have not skyrocketed. We just take a little more from our storage and the balance is a little tighter », Estimates Thierry Bros, energy advisor at the Energy Center of the Jacques Delors Institute. “ But if the delivery of gas to Europe via Turkey stops, it would be much more complicated » he adds. In such a scenario, the affected countries would include Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
Besides Europe, if the gas pipeline were to no longer work, it is Turkey that could see its gas supplies threatened. “ Attacking TurkStream also means attacking the gas going to Turkey “. Before adding: “ Turkey is ‘short’ of gas, it needs this pipe ».
Sabotage de Nord Stream
In addition to the end of gas delivery via Ukraine at the beginning of January, TurkStream is also the last gas pipeline carrying Russian gas since the sabotage of the Nord Stream tubes in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. An event which drastically reduced gas exports Russian The culprits of this mysterious sabotage have never been identified. Last summer, the Wall Street Journal had claimed that the operation had been orchestrated by Ukraine.
The American daily notably declared that the former Ukrainian chief of staff, Valery Zaluzhny, had supervised the plan to blow up the oil pipelines. The Ukrainian president was reportedly aware of the project before turning around and calling for it to be stopped. A ” absolute nonsense » according to the Ukrainian presidency.
Other theories have placed responsibility for this sabotage on the United States or Russia. The two nations even shifted the blame to each other. If the real authors of this sabotage remain, even today, unknown, the Swedish investigation strongly suspected the action of a State, and not of a small independent group.
