We do have Dan Myrtile with US Bloomberg's Asia Energy Reporter to take a closer look at this story about what looks to be dan to be sabotage on the nord Stream pipeline. Yeah, you know, as as everybody knows, you know, Russia has been sort of slowly squeezing off gas supplies to Europe for nearly a year now, ever
since last winter, and it just took an unprecedged step yesterday. Um, there were two underwater explosions noticed by the Swedish authorities, and shortly after in those exact locations, uh, gas started bubbling up to the surface of the Baltic Sea. Uh. There's been no concrete um investigation done because it's so soon, but it certainly appears that some explosions, Uh, there's pipeline damage. Their gas is leaking out of the pipelines up into
the atmosphere, which is horrible for the climate. And it's all but certainly mean that there will be no gas coming along the nord Stream one pipeline into into Europe this winter, which is just making the energy crisis they're that much more severe. Yeah, I was gonna say, what does this mean? And when we're already facing this very dire crossis because it does put at risk, what what little gas is still flowing to Northwest Europe from Russia
very much at play. Yeah, you know, the at the time of the explosions yesterday, the pipelines had already both been basically um neutered by Russia. Nord Stream two had never even gotten off the ground, and nord Stream one had been had stopped delivering a couple of days ago after Russia said it had needed some maintenance issues done
on a compressor station. Um. But this basically there there was some hope left in the market that you know, compressor stations could get fixed, some flows would resume, and Europe could get start getting some gas from Russia again
this winter. Um, that hope is all but gone now, as the idea that this is possible sabotage means that you know, this is not just you know, whatever I thought you may have had, that this could all just the coincidence that Russia was squeezing off these supplies at the same time in the Ukraine War, that these maintenanceances just happen to happen at the same time. Very very few people are confident that that that's possibly the case.
Now everybody is gas traders are starting to price in the idea that Russia really wants to to punish Europe for its support of Ukraine. And there's no real arbitrage opportunities here. I mean, they can't exactly get supply in from from other places. I mean they can, but but it's it's limited in scope, and and so you wonder what the political ramifications from this might be. You know, the European countries are trying to do several things, depending on the country. A couple of them have ellen g
terminals and pipelines from elsewhere. Um Italy, which used to get about of its pipeline or its gas supply from Russia, has said that it's made arrangements to make sure it's going to get all of its gas from other sources this winter. Germany is scrambling to build lergy import terminals so it can bring in more cargoes from the Middle East from the US UM. But but there are props with that, as you alluded to. You know, other countries want that that those lergy cargoes, other countries that are
used to getting it um. You know, Europe's demand has put gas prices through the roof lerg freight prices. These tankers are going for sometimes up near two hundred thousand dollars a day um. All of this stuff is skyrocketing, and it's hurting economies all over the world, merging economies like Pakistan and Bangladesh, who you know, we're reliant on natural gas but can't afford to pay these these super high fees, that can't apport afford to compete with with
rich countries like Germany for these limited supplies. So it's you know, the pain in Europe is is cute, but but it's actually spreading through the rest of the world as well. Yeah. Indeed, and we've been saying that in terms of US gasoline spikes as well. Just tell us what we're watching, because there's also refinery outages in the
Midwest adding to this story too. Yeah, you know, the US market is um the US is actually in probably the best shape of any major economy in terms of energy just because it has you know, plentiful supply of its own oil and gas. It's become a major exporter in recent years. But you know, there's a hurricane flowing through the Gulf of Mexico. That's going to be hurting gasoline supplies in Florida and oil supplies in the Gulf Mexico.
There's you know, refinery adages that are threatening to to halt this long decline in gasolene prices that that Joe Biden was so excited about heading into the mid term elections later this fall. Um. You know, the energy market globally is just incredibly tight right now, and it's going to remain that way through the winter. I guess we should ask you briefly. These gas leaks would be posing some risks environmental and safety risks. So what do we
know so far? Yeah, I mean, several of the European nations around they have created no no travel zones around these gas leaks, which are still bubbling up to the surface at least as of the last time there was light out that we could see. Um um and natural gas. The biggest component is a is a gas called messy that's a H four and it is an incredibly potent greenhouse gas. It traps heat at eighty times the rate
that carbon dioxide does. So it's uh, you know, it's bubbling up to the atmosphere and just going to soak up there and really push more global warming. Uh, you know, even as everything the world was trying to do to halt climate change on that night, Unfortunately down we have to leave at their denmotop bloom Bows Asia Energy Reporter