Europe Cuts the Cord on Russian Gas but What Comes Next?
On January 1st, the last land gas pipeline connecting Russia and Europe directly stopped flowing. The pipeline, which went through Ukraine, allowed Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom to transport natural gas to central Europe.
This halt comes as the five-year-old contract allowing Gazprom to utilize the pipeline ended. Signed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the contract was upheld for its full validity with Ukraine announcing it had no plans to renew. So how did this impact Europe?
In short, Europe was not heavily impacted by the closure of the pipeline. The brunt of the impact occurred in 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In response to the invasion, Western Europe among other individual countries placed a plethora of sanctions on Russia targeting a wide variety of industries and people. Russia in its retaliation, through claims of technical and maintenance errors with the pipelines, reduced and halted the flow of gas to Europe. This created an energy crisis in Europe and forced its countries to find new energy outlets.
Europe compensated for this loss by changing its main importers of gas. In 2021, 40% of the gas imported by the EU came from Russia. Flash forward to 2023, and only 8% came from Russia with a primary import emphasis coming from Norway and the United States.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also prompted a stark shift towards renewable energy alternatives. In 2023, clean energy solutions received 10 times the investment money from Europe when compared to fossil fuels. These two efforts combined allowed Europe to adjust its energy consumption throughout the crisis surprisingly well.
The closing of the gas pipeline last month holds somewhat of a symbolic meaning because the majority of Europe was minimally impacted by its shut-off. Only Moldova has faced real struggles with the line closing and Austria has had to compensate more than others to find solutions for their gas needs. The separation of Europe and Russia through the pipelines’ closing demonstrates Europe’s ability to not be bound to Russia and display its competencies as an entity that can stand for itself.
A question presents itself though, as U.S. relations with Europe, Ukraine, and Russia shift under new governments, will Europe’s continued reliance on gas from the U.S. remain a viable alternative for its energy needs?