Despite the reduced delivery: Russia earns the same amount of gas as before the throttling
Created: 06/25/2022, 10:25 am
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
The federal government has declared the alarm level in the gas emergency plan.
But at Gazprom, profits continue to flow.
Berlin – In Germany, there is growing concern about gas supply bottlenecks.
It was only on Thursday that Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck declared the alarm level in the gas emergency plan because of the drastically reduced delivery volumes.
According to Habeck (Greens), the throttling is politically motivated - he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of an "economic attack" for this reason.
Gazprom makes millions in sales despite reduced delivery volumes
Until now, many Western experts had hoped that Russia would not drastically reduce gas volumes on its own initiative, since it is dependent on the payments.
It is now evident that Gazprom can reduce delivery volumes – and with almost no financial losses.
This suggests a calculation that the market research company ICIS made for the
Handelsblatt
.
Accordingly, last Friday Gazprom took in around 180 million euros from gas deliveries to Europe.
A week earlier - i.e. before the throttling - it was around 185 million euros.
So the Russian state-owned company delivered 30 percent less gas to Europe, but only took in about three percent less.
The reason for this is the sharp rise in gas prices on the market - which have risen sharply again in view of possible bottlenecks in the coming winter.
ICIS expert Andreas Schröder told
Handelsblatt
: "The sharp price jumps on the gas exchange compensate for Gazprom's sharply reduced delivery volumes to some extent."
The federal government has declared the alarm level for the gas emergency plan.
© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
Gas dispute: Russia rejects guilt
Moscow denies any blame in the dispute over the sharply reduced gas supply volumes.
"The Russian Federation is fulfilling all its obligations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, according to the Interfax agency.
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Peskow once again denied that the gas throttling via the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 was politically motivated.
Rather, sanction-related delays in repair work are the cause of the problem.
According to Russian information, a Siemens turbine for the pipeline is stuck abroad.
Ukrainian gas network operator: "There are alternative routes"
The head of the Ukrainian gas network operator GTSOU, Sergiy Makogon, naturally sees things differently.
In the Handelsblatt
, he recommends Germany
to ask Gazprom to fulfill the contractual obligations.
"Technical problems with Nord Stream are not a valid reason for a delivery stop as there are alternative routes," Makogon said.
Russia could also use alternative gas pipelines in Poland and Ukraine.
Gazprom even reserved and paid for rights to transfer gas through the Ukrainian network.
The GTSOU boss concludes: "Russia uses gas as a hybrid weapon against the West and as a means of political pressure on European countries, especially Germany."
(lma/dpa)
