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Photo: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA / REUTERS
All of Europe is cursing the high gas prices.
Whole europe?
No, far in the east of the continent there are also beneficiaries of the current development.
The largest of these is probably the Russian state-controlled Gazprom group.
The company has now presented business figures for the first nine months of 2021 - and they are splendid.
Gazprom made more money than ever before during this period, reports the London daily Financial Times (click here for the full report).
According to Gazprom manager Famil Sadygow, profits from January to September were around $ 20 billion in surplus.
Although the year is not over yet, it is "already more than in any full calendar year in the company's history."
In view of the current market situation, he also expects "impressive results" in the fourth quarter.
The dispute over the Baltic Sea pipeline
Business development in the autumn quarter was particularly impressive: Gazprom earned a whopping 7.8 billion dollars from July to September.
How clearly the group is benefiting from the changed situation on the energy markets is also evident in comparison to the same period of the previous year: In the third quarter of 2020, Gazprom reported a billion-dollar loss.
Gazprom is profiting massively from the acute gas shortage on the European market.
Compared to the previous year, the prices on the European spot market have increased roughly fivefold.
Russia is suspected of having contributed to the gas price crisis itself.
As far as is known, the group has fulfilled all contractual delivery obligations, but beyond that - despite highly lucrative prices - hardly supplied any additional gas.
In the middle of the month the filling level of some European gas storage facilities rose slightly, but this was apparently only a temporary phenomenon.
Some observers also see Russia's actions as an attempt to persuade Germany to start up the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline more quickly.
tremor
