The exchange price for gas in Europe fell below $ 1000 per thousand cubic meters on the statements of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Russian Federation in the situation with gas transit will not put anyone in an uncomfortable position, including Ukraine.
According to the London ICE stock exchange, at the moment the gas price continues to decline and has already dropped to $ 973 per thousand cubic meters.
On September 28, gas prices in Europe set a historic record, for the first time exceeding $ 1,000 per thousand cubic meters. Since then, prices have continued to skyrocket, reaching a record $ 1,937 per thousand cubic meters on Wednesday.
Some European politicians directly accused Russia of cutting supplies to create rush demand. However, European gas companies say Gazprom, the continent's largest gas supplier, is honoring its long-term contracts.
According to Putin, the European Commission is to blame for the rise in prices, which sought to abandon long-term contracts and switch to gas trading on the stock exchange. “It turned out that it has become quite obvious today that this policy is wrong,” the Russian president said.
Gazprom provides 35% of Europe's gas needs. At a meeting with Putin on Wednesday, Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak noted that the exchange prices for gas do not reflect the real situation, since it has not been “without speculative approaches.”
Putin urged Gazprom to “think about a possible increase in supply on the market.”
At the same time, Gazprom believes that it is more profitable for the company to pay a fine to Ukraine and increase the volume of gas supplies to Europe through new pipelines. According to the monopoly, Gazprom increased gas pumping through Ukraine by more than 8% in the first nine months of 2021 and is likely to exceed contractual obligations. A further increase in supplies through the Ukrainian gas transportation system was called unprofitable there.
However, the Ukrainian GTS Operator said that the volume of Russian gas transported to Europe through Ukraine in the period from January to September 2021 fell to 32.7 billion cubic meters from 39.5 billion cubic meters a year earlier. that Ukraine's gas system is operating at less than a third of its capacity, and that the idle capacity, which is double that of Nord Stream 2, could be used to increase gas supplies to Europe.
Ukraine has repeatedly declared the reliability of its gas transportation system and believes that Russia's reluctance to use it is caused by the intention to exert political and economic pressure on the country.
The US believes that Moscow can use the gas issue as a political tool and urged it to supply more fuel to Europe via Ukraine.
