Gazprom plans to start pumping gas into European storage facilities after November 8 | News from Germany about Russia

After pumping gas into Russian underground storage facilities, Gazprom needs to start planned work to increase the volume of gas in European UGS facilities, including Austria and Germany. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting on the development of the resource potential of the Yamal Peninsula on Wednesday, October 27.

According to Putin, this should help the Russian company fulfill its contractual obligations to European consumers and create “a more favorable situation in the European energy market as a whole.”

The head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said that the company plans to achieve the target volumes of gas pumped into underground storage facilities in Russia – 72.6 billion cubic meters – by November 1, and complete the filling procedure by November 8.

“As soon as we complete the injection of gas into the UGS facilities of the Russian Federation, we will start pumping our, Gazprom’s, gas into the UGS facilities in Europe,” Miller promised Putin. He noted that at present the volume of Russian gas in European underground storage facilities is “insignificant” and amounts to less than 190 thousand cubic meters of gas.

Gas crisis in the countries of the European Union

Gas prices in recent months have increased many times and in early October were ten times higher than the average indicators of the previous year.

European experts, media and politicians have more than once expressed their suspicion that Gazprom deliberately contributed to the emergence of a deficit in the European gas market in order to force Germany and the European Union to quickly issue permits for the operation of two lines of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline completed in early September. for which it is required to withdraw it from the anti-monopoly laws of the EU.

Moscow rejects these charges. According to the President of the Russian Federation, the rise in gas prices in Europe is due, in particular, to a shortage of electricity, which was formed due to a decrease in production at wind power plants.

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Author: Andrey Gurkov