Russia’s increasingly aggressive actions against its European gas customers are taking a toll. The country’s natural gas exports have tumbled by more than a quarter since January. But surging prices have kept Russia’s coffers bulging as it continues to cut off deliveries.
Moscow’s gas exports to countries outside of its Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes 11 countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, fell nearly 28% in the first five months of 2022, Russian state energy giant Gazprom (GZPFY) said on Wednesday.
So far, Gazprom has cut off at least 20 billion cubic meters of its annual gas supplies to customers in six European countries — Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands — because they failed to make payments in rubles, a demand President Vladimir Putin made back in March.
That amounts to nearly 13% of the European Union’s total annual gas imports from Russia, according to data from the International Energy Agency.
But James Huckstepp, head of EMEA gas analytics at S&P Global Commodity Insights, told CNN Business that gas prices have risen to an average of €96 per megawatt hour ($102) in 2022 from last year.
As a result, “it is unlikely that [Russia] will see significantly less revenue until further cuts are made,” Huckstepp said.
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Soruce : https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-06-02-22/h_60e8553772059b3692de446d084a6752