Vladimir Putin’s current spin at vitality blackmail was a lot enjoyable for him, why not take one other flip? That appears to be the pondering contained in the Kremlin as Russia shuts down a vital natural-gas pipeline to Europe for the second time in as many months, triggering a brand new panic on the Continent.
Gazprom introduced Friday it’s going to shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for 3 days subsequent week for “unscheduled upkeep.” That is the first conduit for Russian gasoline instantly into Western Europe, and it already was working at solely 20% capability. One other upkeep shutdown final month raised fears that Russia would lower off Europe’s gasoline provide earlier than the Continent was prepared for such an occasion. Gasoline costs on Monday shot up, with the benchmark Dutch futures contract briefly reaching €300 per megawatt hour, in line with Factset.
