DISINFO: Europe catastrophically lacks gas
SUMMARY
Europe catastrophically lacks gas. In addition to gas from the [Nord Stream 2] pipeline, it will be necessary to purchase more and more Russian liquefied gas. The launch of Nord Stream 2 will greatly increase the export of Russian gas to Europe.
RESPONSE
This case is part of the Kremlin's recurring disinformation campaign about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Europe is not "catastrophically lacking gas" - on the contrary, there is enough natural gas supply that prices in Europe have been going down this year. This is because the continent has been flooded with liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a number of suppliers since fall 2018, including the United States. A mild winter in Asia has driven gas prices to a three-year-low level and caused LNG shipments to be redirected to Europe, pushing down the prices. As Polygraph explains, energy experts say LNG has allowed natural gas to become a global commodity that can easily move from one continent to another depending on demand, similar to the way oil is traded. Moreover, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will not import any new Russian gas to Europe; it will simply divert Gazprom’s current transit through the Ukrainian route to Nord Stream 2. Indeed, about 40 percent of Gazprom's transmission capacity to Europe is not utilized - Gazprom's currently unused export capacity to the EU is almost 100 bcm, which contradicts the claim that constructing a new 55-bcm pipeline is necessary to increase gas imports to the EU. More background is available here. For more disinformation cases about Nord Stream 2, see here.