Russia is now burning natural gas in large enough scale for the flame to be visible from Finland – over month long flaring might be indicative of problems

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1. Translation of the first half of the article:

   Flames that can be seen from Finland have been blazing behind the Russian border for weeks already.

   A cabin dweller who contacted Yle told that the flames can be seen by anyone from the shoreline of Virolahti municipality, which is located right next to the eastern border.

   Also Ari Laine from Hamina saw the enormous flames when he visited Lanskeri isle in Hamina archipelago on 24th of July. He watched the fire blazing above the treeline with a telescope and managed to take a picture of the flames as well.

    – I determined the direction and started thinking if it’s coming from the same direction where the gas depots are. It did match the direction, Laine says.

   According to space and aviation administration NASA’s fire observation system’s satellite photos, flames have been observed from Russian natural gas and oil corporation Gazprom’s Portovaja compression station every day since June 17th except for one day. There have been no other flame observations near the station.

   A compressor station is a station where the gas pressure is raised which increases the transfer capacity of the gas network. It is probable that the flames are a result of natural gas flaring at the compressor station.

   Flaring means controlled and intended destruction of flammable gas by burning. The procedure can be externally visible for example as a flame blazing from a tower. This view has been an ordinary one in Finland as well for example in Porvoo at Neste refinery along the years.

   Fire has not been detected from Gazprom’s compression station located near the coast of Gulf of Finland since last September though according to NASA’s satellite pictures.

   Finland has not received natural gas from Russia since May, as it refused to pay for gas with roubles like Russia demanded.

   Flaring can be a sign of problems

   Energy company Gasum’s communication and responsibility chief Olga Väisänen does not comment directly on Russia’s situation but tells that flaring has to be done in certain situations in gas production and transfer.

   Flaring is done often during disruption situations according to Väisänen.

    – For example if there is some kind of problem in an LNG terminal or biogas depot, then they may have to resort to flaring so the pressure in the gas vessel can be kept stable for instance, Väisänen explains.

   A situation which requires flaring can for example appear when gas cannot be delivered to a customer or the customer cannot receive it. Long term flaring could be indicative of a disruptive situation exactly according to Väisänen.

    – A few years ago in Pori there was a fire at Huntsman Pigments factory, and it was the biggest user of the gas delivered by a pipe from the LNG terminal. Then we temporarily didn’t have a place where to deliver all the gas, so it had to be flared. These are difficult to predict, Väisänen says.

   For example in Finland LNG or liquified natural gas is flared when the gas evaporates as the cargo is taken out from a ship into the LNG import terminal. Natural gas is liquified by cooling it to -162 degrees and it evaporates again when it warms.

2. First, there was the brainfart of this mastermind behind this whole invasion. Cover your ears and noses, the big fart of the whole Russian plutocratic economy is incoming.

3. Putin would rather flare it than sell it to Europe?