Gazprom accuses Western Europe of gas shortage in EU

A spokesman for Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom, Alexei Kupriyanov, said the latest natural gas shortage in Western Europe was a result of the lack of bids, rather than Gazprom's fault.

As Ukrinform reports with reference to Radio Svoboda, Kupriyanov stated this, speaking on one of Russian TV channels.

"All the accusations against Russia and Gazprom claiming we deliver little gas to the European market are completely baseless, unacceptable and false ... And Gazprom mustn’t be blamed. It is better to look in the mirror," Kupriyanov said.

Gazprom's manager said certain customers, in particular those from France and Germany, have already fully received all their annual contracted volumes and, accordingly, no longer submit bids for gas supplies, while Gazprom is booking transport capacity based on existing bids, not the other way around."

"This year, Gazprom has delivered to Germany under a contract 50.2 billion cubic meters, which is 5.3 bcmmore than last year," Kupriyanov said.

At present, Kupriyanov said, "according to available data, there is a physical gas reverse flow from Germany to Poland and, apparently, to Ukraine – in the amount of 3 million to 5 million cubic meters per day," with the gas being taken from underground storage facilities in Germany.

According to the Gazprom spokesman, in 2021, gas supplies to Italy, Germany, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Denmark, Finland, and Poland were larger than the previous year. Meanwhile, Europe, says Gazprom is engineering natural gas shortage by cutting off supplies via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.

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