Emily Holland, Assistant Professor at the U.S. Naval War College, explained to the Daily Express that sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a delicate issue. “Unfortunately what Europe has learned over the past decade—and particularly now because Europe is in an energy price crisis—is that replacing those supplies from Russia is not easy. The natural gas market in the world is very tight right now. There’s a lot of demand not just from Europe but from Asian consumers too that has really driven prices up.”
“So any extra gas that’s on the market, and this is what we call liquefied natural gas, is really expensive and it’s got a lot of buyers vying for it.... So even if Europe was able to say we are not going to buy Russian gas anymore, well there’s just simply not enough spare gas to supply Europe or the infrastructure to get it to the consumers. So it’s really impossible to replace Russian gas over the next 20 years.”
