Gazprom's announcement could reshuffle the cards on gas prices, which have reached record highs in recent months.
The Russian gas giant said on Tuesday that it had started to implement its project to fill European gas stocks, the levels of which are exceptionally low.
A sign ?
Immediately after this announcement, the gas market fell 1.61% to $ 5.43.
And prices began to fall at the end of October after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Gazprom to increase its deliveries to the European Union.
It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue in the coming weeks to allow the personal bill to drop.
“Gazprom has approved and started the implementation of the gas injection plan in five European underground storage facilities,” the group said on Telegram, without however specifying whether filling had already started and in which countries these facilities were located. .
In Europe, gas stocks are at their lowest.
They were started by a prolonged winter in 2020 and not sufficiently filled since.
In addition, there is a reduced contribution of renewable energies, such as wind power, for meteorological reasons.
The whole is also accompanied by the economic recovery with an increase in demand.
If the situation on gas supplies seems to be stabilizing, some analysts accuse Russia of having played on price leverage to ask Europe to review its policy on the gas purchase contract.
Moscow wants overhaul of gas supply contracts
According to Moscow, the EU has in recent years favored purchases on the spot market, subject to price fluctuations, rather than signing long-term contracts with Gazprom.
Small step back.
In the 20th century, gas imports into Europe were organized around long-term contracts of up to 25 to 30 years to guarantee the financing of gas pipelines allowing it to be transported over thousands of kilometers.
And for that, it was necessary to agree on both the volumes delivered and the prices.
Prices were indexed to those of oil to prevent favoring the latter over gas.
But from the 90s, long-term contracts began to disappear and this movement accelerated in the 2000s when the supply became more abundant than the demand but without a fall in price due to this price indexation. petrol.
The countries therefore preferred to source their supplies on the spot market in order to gain flexibility.
Today, gas prices are dependent on factors outside Asia or other parts of the world.
In this context, the Russian supplier reminds its European customers that the “old-fashioned” long-term contracts which offered better visibility on prices over long periods.
Especially since Moscow is highlighting its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is to transport gas to Europe, is now operational after causing significant diplomatic tensions with the United States.
This infrastructure with a capacity of 55 billion m3 of gas should make it possible to double Russian gas deliveries to Germany by bypassing Ukraine, until then a traditional transit country, at odds with Moscow.