Russia accounts for about 40% of gas supplies to Europe.
Export of gas of the Russian company “Gazprom” to Europe may be reduced by about a third this year due to “competition” with liquefied natural gas, as well as plans to switch to payments for gas in rubles . Russia accounts for about 40% of gas supplies to Europe, but Western countries are increasingly trying to give up Russian energy after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, writes Reuters.
According to analysts, Russia's plans to pay from “unfriendly” countries for gas in rubles undermined the prospects for Russian gas exports, as Europe called it “blackmail” and almost unanimously refused to comply with such conditions of the Kremlin.
Analyst Sergei Kapitonov from the energy center of the Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo” believes that Gazprom's supplies to Europe may be reduced by 40-45 billion cubic meters this year from about 150 billion cubic meters in 2021.
Rysta Energy's head of gas market research, Cindre Knutsson, said supplies could fall even more as buyers try to become less dependent on Russia, or because Russia is holding back supplies, in part because of differences over gas. must be paid for.
Knutsson also does not rule out stopping gas flows through Ukraine if the war prevents the safe continuation of the pipeline.
The largest importers of gas from Gazprom in Europe in 2021 were Germany (45.8 billion cubic meters), Italy (20.8 billion cubic meters) and Austria (13.2 billion cubic meters).
Russia is Germany's main supplier of gas, supplying just under a third of its gas, while Italy receives about 40% of its imports and Austria 80% of its natural gas from Russia.
Currently only Hungary has agreed to switch to a ruble payment scheme for gas, in which buyers make payments in foreign currency through Russia's Gazprombank, which later converts the currency into rubles.
will be a violation of the bloc's sanctions regime against Russia .
Read also: Latvia plans to abandon Russian gas next year
Why Europe will not agree on a full embargo on energy exports from Russia? Why is a partial or short-term embargo a wrong and dangerous strategy? Should Ukraine itself refuse to transit Russian gas? The answers to these questions are in Mikhail Gonchar's article “Europe in Russia's energy trap: how to overcome dependence?”.
