I’ve drafted a lot of pipeline contracts. This all depends on the language used in the agreement, but typically the spirit of a “take-or-pay” clause is to reserve capacity/volume at a preferred price. The supplier will reserve this capacity/volume on the condition that the customer will purchase it. If they don’t take it they will be charged for it.
A few key points... There’s usually a fixed and variable component (they’d only be charged for fixed), there’s usually a make-up period or rolling average to give some leeway/flexibility, and most importantly here, there are force majeure clauses that relieve the payment obligation if the customer is willing to purchase but unable to receive the product due to an “act of god”.
The details are specific to the agreement and I don’t have visibility into what they are, but I suspect that if Russia is unable to supply the gas then Germany doesn’t have to pay.
Why would Russia be unable to supply Germany? They have the biggest gas fields in Europe. GAZPROM (Russian owned company) would have the ability to turn it off? It’s obvious the gas is there - the discharge upon the water shows it’s there too. Many seismic stations picked up the 2.3 ‘earthquakes’ at that location of the leaks. Do you think Russia would sabotage their own gas lines?
Russia has more than enough gas to cover Germany’s needs, but they’ve just lost their infrastructure for getting it there. I don’t expect they have other means readily available sitting on standby.
Once it was clear that Keystone XL wouldn’t materialize it took Canadian oil companies years to construct terminals and thousands of rail cars to transport even a fraction of the oil that the KXL pipeline would have delivered (and at a much higher cost). I doubt Russia or Germany has rail cars, or ships and the receiving terminals for both all lined up and ready to go.
I don’t think Russia did this. My guess is that it was deep state players in Germany and the US that did it. They saw how swiftly the political winds changed in Italy, and I presume the pressure is rising in Germany. The psychos in the German government want the gas flow stopped, but they don’t want to be blamed for it.
Russia doesn’t need Europe any more. They have other customers in India and China. It’s been stated that Putin was fed up with what Europe and NATO did and if you listen to his speeches - not the ones translated from the MSM - but the official ones from The Kremlin, you know that this winter would be the start of many bad ones for Europe and it’s people. By the way. Have a look what St Petersburg is trialing this Winter. Heated walkways. Amazing.
I agree that they don’t need Europe right now, but supplying gas provides a good revenue stream and gives them political leverage. It’s in Russia’s interest to maintain this relationship long term.
I’m not an engineer, but it sounds like they blew up the line underwater, and it filled with sea water. Fixing a broken line on land is relatively easy. I’d expect that fixing it under water will take considerably longer. Even once the line is fixed, they’ll have to drain and decontaminate it.
If this happened to a major oil and gas company it would probably take them 18-24 months to get things fixed. I would guess that if the govt gave it unlimited resources, it would still take 3-6 months to repair... depending on the damage.
They are still laughing because the money to pay is not coming out of the politicians pocket also they are reaching their DS goal of destroying the West.
I’ve drafted a lot of pipeline contracts. This all depends on the language used in the agreement, but typically the spirit of a “take-or-pay” clause is to reserve capacity/volume at a preferred price. The supplier will reserve this capacity/volume on the condition that the customer will purchase it. If they don’t take it they will be charged for it.
A few key points... There’s usually a fixed and variable component (they’d only be charged for fixed), there’s usually a make-up period or rolling average to give some leeway/flexibility, and most importantly here, there are force majeure clauses that relieve the payment obligation if the customer is willing to purchase but unable to receive the product due to an “act of god”.
The details are specific to the agreement and I don’t have visibility into what they are, but I suspect that if Russia is unable to supply the gas then Germany doesn’t have to pay.
Wow! That’s interesting. You’ve actually drafted pipeline contracts? I’d like to know more about what you do!
Sure, it was in an old job, but I spent 8 years doing it... what do you want to know?
Why would Russia be unable to supply Germany? They have the biggest gas fields in Europe. GAZPROM (Russian owned company) would have the ability to turn it off? It’s obvious the gas is there - the discharge upon the water shows it’s there too. Many seismic stations picked up the 2.3 ‘earthquakes’ at that location of the leaks. Do you think Russia would sabotage their own gas lines?
Russia has more than enough gas to cover Germany’s needs, but they’ve just lost their infrastructure for getting it there. I don’t expect they have other means readily available sitting on standby.
Once it was clear that Keystone XL wouldn’t materialize it took Canadian oil companies years to construct terminals and thousands of rail cars to transport even a fraction of the oil that the KXL pipeline would have delivered (and at a much higher cost). I doubt Russia or Germany has rail cars, or ships and the receiving terminals for both all lined up and ready to go.
I don’t think Russia did this. My guess is that it was deep state players in Germany and the US that did it. They saw how swiftly the political winds changed in Italy, and I presume the pressure is rising in Germany. The psychos in the German government want the gas flow stopped, but they don’t want to be blamed for it.
Russia doesn’t need Europe any more. They have other customers in India and China. It’s been stated that Putin was fed up with what Europe and NATO did and if you listen to his speeches - not the ones translated from the MSM - but the official ones from The Kremlin, you know that this winter would be the start of many bad ones for Europe and it’s people. By the way. Have a look what St Petersburg is trialing this Winter. Heated walkways. Amazing.
I agree that they don’t need Europe right now, but supplying gas provides a good revenue stream and gives them political leverage. It’s in Russia’s interest to maintain this relationship long term.
Do you know anything about what it would take to fix the pipeline? Is it fixable?
I’m not an engineer, but it sounds like they blew up the line underwater, and it filled with sea water. Fixing a broken line on land is relatively easy. I’d expect that fixing it under water will take considerably longer. Even once the line is fixed, they’ll have to drain and decontaminate it.
If this happened to a major oil and gas company it would probably take them 18-24 months to get things fixed. I would guess that if the govt gave it unlimited resources, it would still take 3-6 months to repair... depending on the damage.
What?? How is that possible?
They have to pay,for the pipeline weather they use it or not I assume.
Yup...blew up your fartpipe chipped Civic and you still have to make the payments.
They wont make the payments
They are still laughing because the money to pay is not coming out of the politicians pocket also they are reaching their DS goal of destroying the West.