Giovedì, 12 marzo, 2015
The Head of Russia’s National Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov argues that the EU’s Energy Union project is risking to turn the European Union into a “gas-planned economy”, referring to the type of economic system in which decisions are centralized and taken by political or bureaucratic planners. Simonov argues that the initial intention of the European Union, that is to encourage competition, ended up introducing a sort of a gas “distributive system” in Europe. He invites the EU to construct the pipelines from Greece: that could favor gas deliveries from Iran and Turkmenistan as well, and through this way guarantee free competition of gas deliveries from different suppliers.
Meanwhile Gazprom, that just a few months ago drastically reduced its gas supplies to Europe, has unexpectedly reinstated them in the full volume. Observers quoted by Kommersant link this increase in exports to the depletion of gas storages in Europe. According to the European gas operators, the transit through Ukraine increased by 40% on March 6th. 70% of the gas was directed to Italy, while the rest went to the South Germany. The supply through the Nord Stream pipeline doubled, while supply through the Yamal-Europe pipeline increased by 19%.
Since September 2014, Gazprom cut its gas exports to Europe in order to force the EU to renounce to reverse-supply Ukraine.
Even if Gazprom does not officially comment on the pick up in exported volumes, this may be connected to the recent visits of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to Moscow on March 5th, and the meeting between Reiner Seele from Wintershell, one of the oldest Gazprom partners in Europe, with Alexei Miller.