Gas price rises: Russia not withholding supplies, says envoy to UK
LONDON – Russia is not withholding gas supplies to Europe for political reasons, the country’s ambassador to the UK has said.
Andrei Kelin said that commitments to increase supply would take time to take effect.
Gas prices globally have soared as economies start to recover from the Covid pandemic.
The US has expressed concern that Russia may be using gas as a political weapon as household bills rise.
Russia only provides about five percent of the UK’s gas usage, but it accounts for about half of the EU’s natural gas imports, with most of the rest coming from Norway and Algeria.
Some analysts have suggested Russia could be holding back supplies to Europe to speed up approval of the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipeline running directly from Russia to Germany.
This bypasses Ukraine, and has been met with objections on geo-political as well as environmental grounds, although Russia is keen for it to come on stream.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is not aware of any instances where Russia has not met contractual obligations on gas supply.
“Russia can only deliver gas on the basis of contractual obligations and not just like that,” she has been quoted as saying.
Gazprom, Russia’s majority state-owned energy company, supplies gas to Europe under two different arrangements: long-term contracts often lasting from 10 to 25 years, and “spot” deals or one-off purchases for a fixed amount of gas. – BBC.
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