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Russia not delivering enough gas to Europe is 'a pack of lies' – Gazprom Claims Russia ‘choking’ European gas supply are ‘lies’ – Gazprom
(1 day later)
Claims that Russia is deliberately causing natural gas shortages in Europe are baseless, according to Sergey Kupriyanov, spokesman for energy major Gazprom. Saint Petersburg based energy giant issues strongly worded reply denying supply manipulation accusations.
“All the allegations against Russia and Gazprom relating to delivering an insufficient amount of gas to the European market are absolutely groundless, unacceptable and untrue. In other words, it is a pack of lies,” he said in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel. Accusations leveled by some Western officials against Russia over allegedly halting gas transit to Western Europe to push the approval of Nord Stream 2 are false, Gazprom said on Saturday.
Kupriyanov added that Gazprom is ready to deliver additional gas volumes to Europe under the terms of existing contracts, with the costs of these supplies to be lower than spot market prices. “All accusations alleging that we undersupply gas to the European market are absolutely baseless, unacceptable and inconsistent with reality,” the company's spokesman, Sergey Kupriyanov, told journalists, adding that all such statements are nothing but “lies.”
Last week, European prices for natural gas topped $2,150 per thousand cubic meters for the first time ever, reaching nearly $210 per megawatt-hour in household terms. Gazprom’s average contractual price for European countries is less than $300 per thousand cubic meters. The heated statement came in response to accusations leveled against Moscow by some Western officials earlier this week. Gazprom’s Yamal-Europe pipeline, which brings gas from Russia to Germany through Poland and Belarus, saw shipments halted. 
“All problems in Western Europe are created by the Europeans, they shouldn’t blame Gazprom for this,” the spokesman pointed out. The development prompted some politicians to assume that Russia is playing politics and pushing for the approval of its recently built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is yet to be passed by the German regulator. Fully constructed in September, the pipeline has faced vehement opposition from Poland and Ukraine – two transit nations bypassed by the Baltic Sea pipeline, which stand to lose billions of dollars in annual revenues – as well as the US.
According to Kupriyanov, some countries, like Germany and France, pumped out the gas volumes they had contracted for 2021, but have not submitted requests for additional supplies. Berlin recently said it would decide the project’s fate on a non-political basis.
“Gazprom books shipment capacity in accordance with the number of those requests rather than the other way around,” he added. The Russian gas giant said it simply fulfilled all its existing contractual obligations and did not receive any new supply requests from the relevant European nations, like Germany and France. The company supplied 50.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany alone this year, Kupriyanov said, adding that it was 5.3 billion cubic meters more than last year.
He pointed out that this year Gazprom delivered 50.2 billion cubic meters of gas, 5.3% more than in 2020. Meanwhile, the supply volumes delivered to Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Denmark, Finland, and Poland in 2021 also exceeded the figures recorded last year. Gazprom also fulfilled all its obligations related to gas supplies through the Ukrainian gas transport network as early as on December 15 but still continues to transport gas through Ukraine’s territory.
Some European officials have repeatedly blamed Gazprom and the Russian government for being behind the current energy crisis. The latest accusations followed last week’s stoppage of gas shipments through the Yamal-Europe pipeline. Gazprom says it stopped supplies after Germany did not book additional gas shipments via the route. “All the problems were created by Western Europe itself,” Kupriyanov said, adding that one should “look in the mirror” instead of “placing the blame on Gazprom.” The spokesman also said that the company is ready to supply additional volumes of gas within the existing contract framework.
On Friday, Gazprom and its customers, including Germany’s Uniper SE and RWE AG, confirmed that the Russian company had fulfilled its agreements this year, with the energy major stating that it delivers gas to Europe “fully in compliance with the current contract obligations.” On Friday, the New York-based financial news media outlet Bloomberg reported that a halt in deliveries was not due to some malicious schemes in Moscow but because of the fact that Gazprom’s western buyers had hit their contractual limits for 2021.
During Thursday’s national press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western leaders of lying by blaming Moscow for rising gas prices. “Gazprom is delivering the volume requested by its partners in full, in accordance with existing contracts,” said Putin. Europe saw gas prices skyrocketing this autumn, sparking fears of an energy crisis and leading to initial accusations against Moscow. This week, gas prices rose about 20% again, prompting another wave of heated rhetoric from the West.
The Russian president warned European countries about the threat of destroying the long-term contract system for gas supplies.
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