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No halt in gas supply in Germany, Russia fulfills obligations — German Economy Ministry

Germany registers no interruptions to its gas supply, the security of gas supply has been ensured, and Russia fulfills all its contractual obligations, spokesperson for German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Annika Einhorn said on Monday.

“We are following the gas situation very closely. The security of gas supply has been ensured, there are no interruptions in supplies,” she said.

According to her, the ministry is constantly developing mechanisms to ensure its gas supply in case of a crisis situation, which is carried out in cooperation with other EU member states on the basis of EU legislation.

Einhorn recalled that in Germany it is not the German government that decides on gas flows, but the market.

“So, we cannot comment on individual statements, in particular, of Russia. This should be done by sellers and players operating on the market,” she noted.

“According to our information, Russia is complying with its supply obligations,” she stressed.

“But, as already mentioned, orders and the process of their implementation do not take place through us, so we cannot say anything more on this topic,” Einhorn added.

On December 25, Gazprom’s spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said that a number of Gazprom’s customers from Europe, in particular from France and Germany, had already chosen their annual contract volumes in 2021, so they were no longer submitting applications for the supply of gas. The representative of Gazprom also pointed to the available data on the physical reverse of gas from Germany to Poland and further to Ukraine in the amount of 3-5 million cubic meters per day.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Gazprom was not booking capacities of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline because there are no applications from European consumers. In his opinion, the reverse allows the Europeans to resell gas purchased under long-term contracts. Gazprom also noted that the company supplies gas to Europe at the request of consumers in accordance with existing contracts.

Gazprom began to reduce the volume of reservations for gas transit through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline two weeks ago. Since December 20, it has not booked the capacity for pumping gas through this pipeline at all. As a result, since December 21, the physical flow of gas through the pipeline goes in the reverse direction from Germany to Poland.

Situation on global gas market
The global gas market this year faced a supply crunch amid a sharp recovery in Asian demand and a shortage of LNG capacity. Higher gas demand in Asia pushed up prices and took the bulk of LNG supplies away, adding to the crisis in Europe, where the situation was aggravated by low reserves in gas storage facilities.

Due to this factor, the gas price at the Dutch TTF hub this fall exceeded $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meter mark for the first time ever and in December reached over $ 2,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. However, the price of a futures contract on the TTF hub is volatile due to the speculative factor and does not reflect the real price of physical supplies to Europe. The average gas export price under Gazprom contracts in 2021 will be $280 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Source: TASS

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