Russia Cuts Off Key Resource Causing European Leaders To Panic

The flow of natural gas through a Russian-controlled pipeline abruptly stopped Wednesday as tensions continue to grow between Russia and the West.

The Yamal-Europe pipeline’s liquified natural gas (LNG) flows, operated by Russian state-run firm Gazprom, have usually been pumped westward from Russia to Germany through Poland, were stopped early Wednesday. The sudden stop is a setback after leaders expected the pipeline to return to its normal flow pattern.

In December 2021, Gazprom slowed the pipeline’s gas flows and reversed the flow direction from westward to eastward. The sudden reversal sent natural gas prices skyrocketing after they had already surged amid a European energy crisis.

Gazprom and the Russian government said that the change was a “commercial” decision and that customers would continue to get purchased gas. But geopolitical tensions between Russia and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have increased over the last several weeks, putting Europe’s energy supply at risk.

Russia controls nearly 46% of European gas imports, according to European Union data.

“A disruption in the physical energy supplies transiting Ukraine would, clearly, most acutely affect natural gas markets in Europe,” a senior Biden administration official said.

“And so we’re engaging our European allies to coordinate our response planning, including talking to them about how they deploy their existing energy stockpiles, which are, obviously, at significantly low levels this year due to the reduced Russian supplies over the last several months,” the official said.

On Jan. 25, the White House announced it would help facilitate non-Russian natural gas flows into Europe from North Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the U.S.

“We are collaborating with governments and market operators on supply of additional volumes of natural gas to Europe from diverse sources across the globe,” President Joe Biden said in a joint statement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Jan. 28. “LNG in the short-term can enhance the security of supply while we continue to enable the transition to net-zero emissions.”