Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that it is unfair to blame Moscow for historically high natural gas prices in Europe, as the Russian company Gazprom is meeting all its supply obligations, Reuters reported.
Europe has created its own gas problems and should solve them itself, the president told an annual press conference, adding that he suspects that some of the Russian gas led to Germany is ultimately being resold to Ukraine.
Putin explained that countries that have signed long-term contracts – like Germany – now enjoy much lower prices and can even resell gas to their neighbors profitably.
European spot gas prices hit another all-time high this week after the Yamal pipeline, which normally carries gas to Germany, changed direction and began flowing into Poland.
This month, the Dutch TTF, the benchmark for gas in Europe, reached levels of 162.77 euros ($ 195.33) per megawatt hour.
Those price levels are seven times higher than at the beginning of the year, according to the AFP agency.
Germany receives Russian gas through various routes, including Yamal and the Nord Stream 1 submarine pipeline.
“Gazprom is supplying all the volumes requested under existing contracts,” Putin told the media.
The Gazprom company buys additional export capacity when it has new orders from its customers and delivers through the Yamal-Ukraine gas pipeline.
However, Gazprom has not reserved additional capacity for shipments through Yamal.
“Gazprom did not reserve this traffic because its customers, especially German and French companies, who buy gas through this route (Yamal), did not submit purchase requests,” Putin said on Thursday.
In short, Gazprom stopped supplying gas to Germany through the Yamal pipeline this week because European companies did not buy more volumes, he explained.
“What would we have to transport? There have been no requests, ”Putin said.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx