OREANDA-NEWS. The delay in the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 is due to the fact that the Europeans relaxed after the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the country agrees to provide additional gas supplies, explained economist Alexei Korenev. According to him, Europe will have to change its decision if the volume of additional supplies turns out to be insignificant, and to speed up the launch process. Writes about this Lenta.ru.

“At first, as we remember, there was a massive panic in Europe, but now the situation has improved: Russia promised to increase supplies in excess of the previously agreed volumes, after filling its own storage facilities by November 8th. This provoked a sharp drop in prices to acceptable levels, as a result of which the Europeans again began to play their favorite old song about green technologies. But I'm afraid they will have to forget about it if we increase supplies in small volumes, then prices will start to rise again, ”the economist said.

Europe, as Korenev noted, is more inclined to listen to the Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg than to the voice of reason, which may be fraught with a repetition of the energy crisis that has not yet ended.

The delay in the commissioning of Nord Stream 2, according to Korenev, can be easily explained from the point of view of logic: this is a very complex design from the point of view of technology, the operation of which must be thoroughly debugged and tested. But nevertheless, if one approaches the certification of a pipeline extremely meticulously, “picking on every comma,” the process can drag on for many years, the economist believes.

According to Bloomberg, the process of obtaining permission from Germany to use the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline threatens to drag on until early May 2022.