The state company Gazprom is trying to provoke a new gas crisis in Europe - the monopoly deliberately reduces supplies even to those consumers who agreed to switch to a new payment scheme "in rubles" and provokes a sharp increase in gas prices. Germany, one of the main consumers of gas in Europe, has faced major pressure from Russia, reports Bloomberg.
The German company Uniper, which has long been a partner of Gazprom in the Nord Stream 2 project, reported that supplies from Russia fell by 25% compared to the contractual obligations of the Russian side. In its message, the company noted that it is currently replacing Russian gas with fuel from other sources. The day before, the Italian group Eni, which has also been Russia's partner in the Blue Stream for a long time, received a notification from the Russian side about a reduction in supplies by about 15%. Gazprom did not name the reason for the decline. The French company Engie also announced a reduction in supplies “by an insignificant level”, however, the company assured that they were closely monitoring the situation and would not allow problems for consumers.
At the same time, both companies previously agreed to a new payment scheme for gas through the opening of two accounts with Gazprombank: in euros and rubles. Actions of "Gazprom" provoke a sharp rise in prices in the European market. During the auction on June 15, the cost of a thousand cubic meters of gas reached $1,320, which was a local record since the winter-autumn of 2022, when Gazprom had already provoked a gas crisis in Europe by refusing to supply gas to the market in excess of the volumes stated in the contracts.
On Wednesday, June 15, Gazprom notified European consumers of a 60% reduction in gas transportation through Nord Stream. The Russian company explained its actions with problems with Siemens gas turbines, which did not return to the pumping station after repairs due to sanctions. However, Germany considered such explanations as blackmail and accused Russia of using gas as a political tool.
At the moment, Nord Stream has remained the main gas pipeline in Europe, its capacity is estimated at 170 million cubic meters of gas per day, but the current level of supplies is estimated at 67 million cubic meters. Also, about 40 million cubic meters of gas are supplied to Europe from Russia through the Ukrainian system and about 20 million more through Turkish pipelines. Russia is trying to transfer some of the lost volumes of Nord Stream to the Turkish Stream, but the volumes of “transfer” are too small to talk about a real attempt to solve the problem: the dropped volume is estimated at 100 million cubic meters, and the increase in supplies through Turkey is around 15 million .
