Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russian gas supplied to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline has almost four times less carbon footprint than gas exported from the United States.

"Russian gas supplied to Europe through Nord Stream, according to various analytical and consulting agencies, has almost four times less carbon footprint per kWh than gas supplied to Europe from the United States," - quoted Novak TASS ...

According to the deputy prime minister, the characteristics of American gas are due to the fact that in the United States, most of this fuel is extracted from shale rocks using hydraulic fracturing.

Novak stressed that Russia pays great attention to ensuring its environmental leadership.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Victoria Abramchenko also stressed that natural gas production in Russia is environmentally friendly.

“The best available technologies are used in the production and transportation of our gas, this is truly environmentally friendly production,” she said at a press conference at the IX Nevsky International Environmental Congress.

Her words are quoted by TASS.

Earlier, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that natural gas obtained in Russia is allegedly the "dirtiest" in the world.

At a hearing in the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology, she noted that the United States opposes Nord Stream 2.

According to Granholm, this position is due not only to geopolitical considerations.

The US Secretary of Energy said the pipeline under construction in Europe transports "the dirtiest form of natural gas on Earth."

US President Joe Biden re-emphasized a few days ago that Washington is still opposed to Nord Stream 2.

At the same time, the American leader admitted that the pipeline is almost completed.

According to him, the introduction of sanctions against the highway "would be counterproductive" from the point of view of US relations with European countries.

Also on russian.rt.com "An Instrument of Political Bargaining": Why the United States Declared the Counterproductiveness of Sanctions Against Nord Stream 2

Experts disagreed with the American side's assessment of the purity of Russian gas.

According to Sergei Pikin, director of the Energy Development Fund, Granholm's statement is groundless.

“At the same time, it is absolutely politically engaged and has nothing to do with the chemistry of the process and its technological component.

It is not proper for the country's energy minister to throw such populist phrases without giving any arguments.

It can be seen that the Minister of Energy in this regard is more a minister than an energy engineer, and this is very sad, "Pikin said in an interview with RT.

As Pikin explained, from the point of view of the chemical formula, Russian gas is no different from gas from Norway or from Qatar.

“Probably, she means exactly the carbon footprint, because if the minister talks about chemical formulas, then this is complete unprofessionalism: in its pure form, methane exists only in laboratory conditions.

In the ground, it cannot be in such a variant - it must be further purified, ”Pikin explained.

Alexey Grivach, Deputy General Director for Gas Issues at the National Energy Security Fund, drew attention to the methodology for producing American LNG.

According to him, fracking itself is only one of the methods of gas production, the question is the scale of its use and the consequences.

“In order to extract gas from low-permeability reservoirs (gas, which is often called shale gas in our country - this is, of course, a very broad generalization), you need to drill a very large number of horizontal wells and carry out multi-stage hydraulic fracturing of platforms.

And when all this is added together, the load on the ecosystem increases very much, "Grivach explained in an interview with RT.

He added that in order to develop this technology, the United States relaxed its environmental regulation laws, as the method of gas extraction they use "leads to serious methane leaks, a large amount of carbon dioxide is released."

Along with this, in the early stages of production in new territories, due to the lack of infrastructure, a large amount of associated gas is flared.

“Therefore, even if we look at the data of the studies carried out, we will see that American LNG is closer to the right side (table) in terms of its carbon footprint and is much less environmentally friendly compared to Russian pipeline gas,” concluded Grivach.