Russia claims Ukraine attacked TurkStream gas compressor

Amid a looming gas shortage in Europe, Russia said its air defense downed all nine drones that attacked a gas compressor station in Krasnodar, and claimed they were Ukrainian aircraft. The facility is part of the TurkStream pipeline system.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said the Russkaya compressor station in Krasnodar area maintained regular operations after the military thwarted a drone attack on January 11. The nine unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sent by Ukraine, were all shot down, according to the announcement.  The facility in the village of Gai-Kodzor serves TurkStream.

The gas pipeline runs under the Black Sea to Thrace region in the European part of Turkey. The debris from one downed drone caused minor damage to a building and equipment at a gas metering unit, the ministry revealed.

Attack on TurkStream infrastructure exacerbates fears for gas supply due to colder winter

The alleged incident occurred at a time when European countries and especially Britain are concerned because of declining levels of gas in storage. Most of the downward pressure can be attributed to the intense cold.

There is another major factor, however. Ukraine declined to renew a contract with Russia, halting the flow of gas to Central Europe at the beginning of the year.

It leaves TurkStream, more than 930 kilometers long, as the only remaining direct pipeline. It continues into Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary as Balkan Stream. Notably, there is also the Blue Stream interconnection under the Black Sea, which carries the fuel to Asia Minor.

Supply through TAP pipeline tumbles almost 30%

Moreover, an outage at Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field has disrupted the deliveries to Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor. It consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline – TAP.

The weakened supply, since January 7, affected Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Italy. The reduction in daily quantities at the Turkey-Greece interconnection point since January 8 amounts to almost 30% from the usual level.

Azerbaijan initially said full supply would resume by January 11, but then postponed it to January 15. President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić said on January 12 that Azerbaijan assured him that Serbia wouldn’t be affected by the cuts.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić said Azerbaijan assured him that his country wouldn’t be affected by the cuts

On the other hand, the energy system in Serbia is in jeopardy because of new sanctions against Russian state-owned Gazprom Neft. Last week the United States and United Kingdom imposed measures against the company, which owns 50% of NIS. It places the Serbian oil refiner and fuel distributor under so-called secondary sanctions risk.

Gazprom, the parent company of Gazprom Neft, controls another 6.2%. Vučić said Russia may urgently need to exit ownership over NIS to avoid a halt of oil supply to Serbia.

In other news, Minister of Energy of Romania Sebastian Burduja claimed the halt of pipeline gas supply through Ukraine doesn’t affect his country. He added that domestic production is entirely covering demand. Romania became the largest gas producer in the European Union last year, Burduja stressed and noted that the Neptun Deep offshore field is due to come online in 2027.