Russia's Gazprom announced a reduction in natural gas flows through a key European pipeline for the second day in a row Wednesday, creating further energy turmoil for Europe as it tries to reduce its extensive use of Russian oil and natural gas amid the war in Ukraine.
The state-owned energy giant said on Twitter that deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would be cut again Thursday, bringing the overall reduction through the undersea pipeline to 60 per cent.
The drop in shipments of gas used to power industry and generate electricity would amount to some 16 billion cubic metres by the end of the year, or around 10 per cent of total European Union gas imports from Russia, according to Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
Egypt, Israel and the European Union on Wednesday signed a deal to increase liquified natural gas sales to EU countries, who aim to reduce their dependence on supplies from Russia as the war in Ukraine drags on. The deal, stamped in an upscale Cairo hotel, will see Israel send more gas via Egypt, which has facilities to liquify it for export by sea, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
Von der Leyen, who visited Israel earlier this week, said the agreement was part of Europe's efforts to diversify energy sources away from Russia and import hydrocarbons from other trustworthy suppliers. She named Israel and Egypt who have emerged as gas exporters in recent years following major offshore discoveries. Under the deal, the EU will help Egypt and Israel increase their gas production and exploration in their territorial waters. It was not immediately clear how much gas the EU will import from either country.
"It is known that the Russian war against Ukraine has exposed our European dependency on Russian fossil fuels and we want to get rid of this dependency," von der Leyen said later in a joint news conference with Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Last year, the European Union imported roughly 40 per cent of its gas from Russia and has had difficulty imposing sanctions on Russia over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
