As Russia threatens to cut off the fossil gas on which much of Europe depends, the continent’s storage facilities are a crucial line of defence. So you’ll be glad to hear that Germany possesses a massive gas storage reservoir, under the town of Rehden, in Lower Saxony. The biggest strategic reserve in western Europe, it can hold enough fossil gas to supply 2 million households for a year.
You’ll be less delighted to discover who owns it. It belongs to a company called Astora. Astora is a subsidiary of the Russian state company Gazprom. Altogether, it owns about one-quarter of Germany’s gas stores. All of them are almost empty. They have been run down to 10% or less of their capacity. According to the German minister for economic affairs and climate action, these storage facilities have been “systematically emptied”.
Idiocy is nested within idiocy like a stack of Russian dolls. Germany has allowed private companies to control its strategic reserve, and has imposed no legal requirements on how much gas the reserve should hold. Nor has it prevented companies controlled by foreign states from owning it.
Oh Lord. It’s already tiring to hear from here and there “Ban and limit imports of Russian gas and oil”.
Gas prices are trying to reach the sky. People can’t afford to buy diesel to heat their homes or pay their gas utility bills.
Snap out of it people! It won’t happen overnight.
Are Europeans at least willing to cut their oil imports from Russia by the same amount that the US is (7%-8%)? That could still have a big impact on Russia. Otherwise it just seems like countries in the EU are simply not willing to make the same level of sacrifices that Americans are, which is bad considering that they are probably in greater danger from Russia.
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As Russia threatens to cut off the fossil gas on which much of Europe depends, the continent’s storage facilities are a crucial line of defence. So you’ll be glad to hear that Germany possesses a massive gas storage reservoir, under the town of Rehden, in Lower Saxony. The biggest strategic reserve in western Europe, it can hold enough fossil gas to supply 2 million households for a year.
You’ll be less delighted to discover who owns it. It belongs to a company called Astora. Astora is a subsidiary of the Russian state company Gazprom. Altogether, it owns about one-quarter of Germany’s gas stores. All of them are almost empty. They have been run down to 10% or less of their capacity. According to the German minister for economic affairs and climate action, these storage facilities have been “systematically emptied”.
Idiocy is nested within idiocy like a stack of Russian dolls. Germany has allowed private companies to control its strategic reserve, and has imposed no legal requirements on how much gas the reserve should hold. Nor has it prevented companies controlled by foreign states from owning it.
Oh Lord. It’s already tiring to hear from here and there “Ban and limit imports of Russian gas and oil”.
Gas prices are trying to reach the sky. People can’t afford to buy diesel to heat their homes or pay their gas utility bills.
Snap out of it people! It won’t happen overnight.
Are Europeans at least willing to cut their oil imports from Russia by the same amount that the US is (7%-8%)? That could still have a big impact on Russia. Otherwise it just seems like countries in the EU are simply not willing to make the same level of sacrifices that Americans are, which is bad considering that they are probably in greater danger from Russia.