One reason Germany is heading for a gas emergency is an explosion at a Texas facility that supplies US liquefied natural gas to Europe. The terminal is down for months. Does Russia have anything to do with it?
Economics Minister Rorbert Habeck has declared the alarm level for the gas supply, it is becoming increasingly likely that the German storage facilities will not be 90 percent full by the beginning of February, as required by law. The main reason for this is of course the reduction in the amount of gas flowing through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 40 percent.
But bottlenecks were to be expected shortly beforehand. An explosion at a Texas liquefied natural gas terminal on June 8 is likely to cut scheduled US deliveries through the fall, possibly by the end of the year.
This is a big problem for the whole of Europe, because according to the industry information service ICIS, up to 80 percent of Freeport loads went there in March. In April and May, 45 percent of Europe's liquefied natural gas imports came from the United States. As the energy expert Claudia Kemfert confirmed in the program "Markus Lanz", liquefied gas is not expected to come from Qatar until 2024, until then deliveries from the USA in particular should fill the gap. "That means 20 percent less than we actually planned." And that is the reason for the emergency plan, says Kemfert.
The timing of the accident raises the question of whether it may have been Russian sabotage. According to the "Washington Examiner", cyber units of the secret service GRU are said to have carried out targeted reconnaissance operations against Freeport LNG, which is one of the largest exporters of liquid gas in the USA, around the beginning of the Ukraine invasion. A source told him the FBI was investigating the case, writes author Tom Rogan. The authorities themselves told him they could neither confirm nor deny this.
Freeport writes in a statement that gas escaped from pipes from the storage tanks to the dock facilities and ignited. The accident was probably due to a rupture as a result of overpressure. Rogan wonders how such an incident could have happened despite the necessary security measures.
Rogan writes that a Russian cyber entity called Xenotimee may have deployed malware (Triton) that specializes in damaging industrial control systems. Only in March did the FBI warn of this malware.
If it was indeed a targeted Russian action, it could be considered an act of war by the US, making the theory quite improbable. In addition, according to EnergyWire, the Freeport facility had experienced glitches several times before. A security expert called the frequency of the incidents "alarming". LNG is a monster when it comes to hazards, particularly fire and explosions, safety expert Kay O'Conner told the industry magazine. "It can escalate quickly."
