A technical problem in a gas installation in the North Sea this Monday caused a sudden stop in the flow of gas between the Nordic country and the European Union. The failure, a crack in a pipe that has forced the transit of this fuel to stop between the Sleipner Riser extractive facility and the Nyhamna processing plant, has triggered the Dutch TTF index—which serves as a reference in the Old Continent— to its highest level so far this year. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Norway is the largest gas supplier in the Twenty-Seven.
The two-inch crack still has no scheduled repair date, according to Gassco, the company that manages the Nordic country’s gas system. The state firm, however, has clarified that the situation is not serious. It does, however, have “important consequences from the supply point of view,” according to the company’s chief operating officer, Alfred Hansen. “The plant operator [la anglo-neerlandesa Shell] “It will give us an accurate estimate of how long it will take and then we can update our forecasts.”
In addition to an important gas field, Sleipner Riser is a key point of confluence of two pipelines that, in turn, are key to bringing the fuel, essential for the industry, to the rest of the continent and the United Kingdom. “We are working on a plan to repair it and, also, to continue sending the maximum possible amount of gas to Europe,” added a spokesperson for the Norwegian gas manager.
Last year, according to data from the European Commission, just over 30% of the gas consumed in the EU came from Norway. The second supplier, the United States, barely reached 20%.
Above 38 euros
This Monday, hours after the problem became known, the TTF has exceeded 38.5 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). An unprecedented figure since December of last year, even in the middle of the heating season, when consumption skyrockets in the northern hemisphere. However, the daily increase, which has reached double digits, has moderated as the hours have passed: at five in the afternoon, the increase was around 5% compared to last Friday’s close.
The price of gas is fundamental not only for the industry but also for the generation of electricity: any increase in its price is transferred almost immediately to the price of electricity, because the combined cycle plants are the ones that set the price in the wholesale market. when renewables are not capable of covering all demand on their own.
However, despite the specific tension that this technical problem may create, the situation has absolutely nothing to do with what was experienced in the harshest months of the energy crisis. In the fateful year of 2022, when the price of gas skyrocketed to historic highs, the security of supply itself was seriously affected. Today, however, European reserves are above 70%, one of the highest figures in history for this time of year. The objective of the Community Executive is to reach 90% by November, a figure clearly within reach.
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