Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom, the Russian state run energy supplier, to start pumping more natural gas into Europe.
This caused the price of gas to drop 12pc on Thursday, with hopes that additional supply will help mitigate the skyrocketing energy costs currently blighting the continent.
The Russian president spoke with the head of Gazprom on Thursday and told him to begin filling storage units in Germany and Austria as soon as they finished fulfilling domestic requirements. This is expected to begin on the 8th of November.
“This will make it possible to fulfil our contractual commitments in a reliable, stable and consistent manner and to supply our European partners with gas in the autumn and winter,” Putin said. “This will create a favorable situation, at any rate, a better situation in the European energy market in general.”
The news could not have come any sooner. The price of energy has quadrupled over the last year following crippling supply shortages. British households have faced an average cost increase of £139 (based on typical usage) with this figure almost certain to go up again in April when the price cap is evaluated once more.
There have been some tensions between Europe and Russia over Gazprom’s seeming unwillingness to provide additional gas to the continent beyond their contractual obligations. Some EU lawmakers even accused Gazprom, and by association the Kremlin, of purposefully holding back additional gas supplies in order to keep prices high.
What’s causing sky high energy prices?
As is often the case, there are numerous factors at play here which have caused natural gas reserves to be severely depleted. The two main factors of this are an especially cold winter naturally causing higher demand and various Asian economies gearing up after lockdowns.
The issue is especially bad in the UK, because as well as increased global demand, we were having a little trouble in producing our own energy. Once again this is down to a few factors including severely reduced wind turbine output due to low wind levels over summer, several nuclear plants being out of commision due to maintenance and a subsea power line from France to the UK somehow catching fire.
Click here for a more detailed explanation of the energy crisis.
