Russian giant Gazprom considers Germany’s resale of high-priced natural gas to Poland to be “unreasonable” and rejects allegations that Moscow has deliberately restricted its deliveries to Europe, AFP reports.
“We are seeing a reversal of the flow of natural gas to Poland and, apparently, to Ukraine, of the order of three to five million cubic meters per day,” a spokesman for Christmas said in a video released Saturday night. Gazprom, Sergei Kuprianov, reports News.ro.
“This natural gas comes from Germany’s underground tanks, 47% of which were used. And winter is just beginning. This is not the most rational decision, “he said.
In his opinion, the price of these deliveries is “significantly higher than those of the volumes delivered by Gazprom”.
Poland’s permanent representative to the European Union (EU) on Wednesday accused Moscow of stopping supplies via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline between Russia, Poland and Germany, and accused the Gazprom group of “manipulation”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on Thursday that Gazprom was not making new exports through the pipeline due to a lack of new European orders.
Western Europe has been facing a crazy rise in the price of natural gas for several months, caused by several factors – a very cold winter 2020-2021, a postcovid economic recovery and a reduced supply of renewable energy.
Europe’s gas prices broke a new record on Tuesday with the installation of winter temperatures on the brink of geopolitical tensions between the EU and Moscow – which account for a third of Europe’s gas supplies.
The West suspects Russia of limiting its supplies in order to put pressure on Europeans and win several cases, including the launch of a new Russian-German gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2.
“The accusations against Russia and Gazprom that we supply little natural gas to the European market are absolutely baseless,” Sergei Kuprianov said on Saturday.
“This year, Gazprom delivered 50.2 billion cubic meters to Germany, 5.3 billion more than last year. Gazprom has already delivered more natural gas than last year to the following countries: Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Denmark, Finland and Poland, ”he said.
Russia is also accused of not sending additional natural gas to Europe via Ukraine due to strong tensions between Moscow and Kiev, which Moscow also denies.
