Belarus Stopped Natural Gas Flow to Europe

Nov. 17, 2021 (EIRNS)—Last week, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko had threatened to stop the flow of Russian natural gas to Western Europe, via Belarus, if the European Union imposed new sanctions over the border crisis with Poland. On Nov. 16, new sanctions were imposed, and Lukashenko repeated that there would be an immediate response. Today, Belarus announced “unscheduled repairs” on a major pipeline and shut it down. They indicated that it may take approximately three days. The Belarus transit company, Gomeltransneft Druzhba, thought that they would still meet their November quota. Even though Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned over the weekend against taking such actions, saying that “no good” could come from such actions, both sides have proceeded with sanctions and shutdowns—leaving spot-market speculators warm and customers out in the cold.