So, last week the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) officially confirmed that it had received an agreed timetable for the further construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline near Bornholm Island.
And a little earlier, the Danish Maritime Administration (it's just amazing how many different official, with a capital letter, administrations, agencies and other very, very serious institutions for one small, and moreover, part of the supranational EU, Kingdom of Denmark, can be) well, okay) no less officially announced that the laying of the unfinished section on January 15 will be started by the Russian ship "Fortuna", which recently completed similar work on the German shelf.
In the message of the Danish Maritime Administration, it is separately noted that a temporary exclusion zone, standard for such cases, will be created at the place of work, 200 m in each direction from two branches of the gas pipeline under construction.
In these areas, it will be touching, in a European way, it will be prohibited to carry out any kind of work on the seabed, unauthorized sailing, diving, anchoring of vessels of any class and accessories, as well as fishing.
There is a feeling that swimming could also be banned, just in case, but for swimming in the Baltic Sea, fortunately, it is still somewhat out of season.
What can I say.
Such careful tracking by the European (primarily German) media of any, in fact, even the most innocent, movements of the pipe-laying vessels "Fortuna" and "Akademik Chersky" through the global vessel positioning system MarineTraffic, as well as such careful monitoring of DEA and Danish Maritime Administration reports on the resumption of construction gas pipeline "Nord Stream - 2" in Danish waters, although somewhat smack of a kind of pipeline fetishism, we must nevertheless admit that they have very rational and, we would even say, quite pragmatic grounds.
Especially if we consider the external background against which this resumption of construction of the long-suffering Russian-European gas pipeline is taking place.
And now we do not even mean the madness that gripped the "senior partners of the EU" from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
There, of course, there is now such a movement, the consequences of which cannot but affect the European economies.
But this is unlikely to happen overnight and right now.
Stories like the ones happening now in the United States are deeply inertial.
And there is no guarantee that what is happening there is not a prelude to something much more significant than one (not the most barbarous, by the way) pogrom in parliament so far in this sense of a very distant overseas country.
There are illustrations both closer and more disturbing for the Europeans, so to speak - not even on the strategic, but on the operational contour.
And there are so many of them that no one would look at them with pleasure for a century.
Let us explain with an example from a very recent one.
At the end of the same week, in which the DEA published its sensational confirmation about the Russian "Fortune", starting from January 15, construction of the final section of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, spot gas prices on European markets continued to be quite confident - moreover, almost that a record - takeoff.
Moreover, at a time when the European gas industry itself is no less confidently entered into a stressful mode of operation, which in previous years fell on only the strongest cold.
To make it completely clear.
The cost of 1 thousand cubic meters of fuel at the Dutch TTF hub under a day-ahead contract (with delivery for today, Monday, 01/11/2021) increased to $ 258 after reaching the previous peak value for delivery on January 5 of this year, which was $ 253.5 ...
It is noted that the price reached a maximum in 23 months, and this is a record value since January 25, 2019.
No COVID-19, as you know, then no one even bothered.
And there is a feeling that "at the moment" these figures are still far from final.
What is the most interesting thing.
The Ukrainian gas transportation corridor, even in such circumstances, still remains underutilized.
Now we are not faced with the task of a general overview of the state of affairs on the Ukrainian pipe, therefore, we will just give a few figures that any sufficiently educated and inquisitive reader is quite capable of turning into certain conclusions - and quite independently.
So that's it.
Gazprom, according to agreements concluded not so long ago (by historical standards) with the Ukrainian side, had the right to pump over 150 million cubic meters of blue fuel per day through an independent Ukrainian territory in January (for those who like exact figures: 110 million cubic meters - long-term booking and 41.6 million cubic meters per day - additional monthly booking).
Nevertheless, since the beginning of the year, the Russian gas company has been pumping no more than 124 million cubic meters per day through Ukraine.
Just for comparison: in December 2020, Gazprom pumped an average of 183 million cubic meters a day through Ukraine - the difference, as you can see for yourself, is quite tangible.
In fact, there has never been any such malicious intent of the Russian Gazprom in what is happening, and there is no need for Ukrainians to complain (and they do it continuously).
As well as there is no politicization (which is not a fact, by the way, which is good: the Russian gas company has already somehow hinted that it should be primarily a state-owned company, and only then a business, however, this primarily concerned non-core assets).
But nevertheless: there is no politics here either.
And the situation at the operational level can be explained quite simply: Gazprom simply sells its own reserves from European UGS facilities against the background of high prices.
From the same underground storage facility "Reden", which is strategic for the Russian giant, Gazprom takes the maximum technically possible volume of gas daily - 49 million cubic meters per day according to a quota.
Nothing personal just business.
That is why the spot is "at the top of the price" so that the seller does not yawn.
But the symptom is still, you see, significant and, as a signal to Europeans, quite understandable and strong.
In addition, for example, the strategic Reden UGS facility is located, purely even geographically, exactly where it should be located: connecting through the NEL gas pipeline with the existing Nord Stream (this is, in fact, its continuation on land).
And it is simply more profitable for Gazprom, together with its European partners, if there is such an opportunity, to pump Russian gas through joint Russian-European flows, and not through the questionable from the point of view of security, and besides, it is also much more (in every sense of the word ) an expensive Ukrainian pipe.
As our common overseas partners say in such cases, nothing personal, it's just business.
And that is precisely why the European mass media are so closely following the movements of the Russian pipelayer Fortuna: even after any political component was removed from the Nord Stream 2 project, it still remained a key one for the European energy and, therefore, economic security.
But for us, after the disappearance of illusions about European integration, it has become what it should have been - a purely commercial project.
Yes, important, but really one of many.
Nevertheless, both the Russian Fortuna in the Baltic waters and the schedule for the further construction of the Russian-European Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline agreed by the Danish Energy Agency testify: we will complete it, this project, in this hectic and too rapidly changing world we are.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.