Deliveries thus remain close to the maximum contractual limits of 109 million cubic metres. The high level can partly be explained by the low temperatures in Europe. As a result, the demand for gas is higher.
Last week there was also a lot of uncertainty about gas supplies due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Russian gas had to be paid in rubles from April. However, Europe refused. It was later concluded from a decree that a construction is being set up that should make it possible for foreign parties to continue to pay in euros via a detour.
Despite calls in Europe to impose new sanctions on Russia over the atrocities committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Butya, gas appears to remain exempt from those sanctions. Russia is Europe’s main supplier of natural gas and many countries fear their energy supplies will be at risk if they stop buying Russian gas.
Christian Sewing, the chief executive of the Confederation of German Banks (BdB), said today the call to understand a gas embargo from an emotional standpoint, but warned that if it came to that “it is very likely that the German economy and probably the European economy will be plunged into recession with consequences that could drag on for a long time.”