- Gazprom said its European customers requested 57 million cubic meters of gas on April 17.
- Demand from Russia is lower than last year, but the EU is still struggling to break the dependency.
- The state-owned Gazprom also pays Ukraine billions to transport gas through the country.
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State-backed Russian oil giant Gazprom continues to ship millions of tons of gas to Europe via Ukraine as demand for energy continues, albeit at lower levels than last year, according to a statement issued to Reuters.
In the statement, Gazprom said gas requests for April 17 stood at 57 million cubic meters, compared to last week’s 91.3 million cubic meters on April 8, also reported by Reuters.
Gazprom pays Naftogaz of Ukraine NJSC for the privilege of transporting some of its gas across the country. Gazprom paid Naftogaz $2.11 billion for transit services in 2020, according to a statement from the Ukrainian state-owned company.
Data compiled by European think tank Breugel shows that Russian gas imports in the first week of April were 26% lower than the same period in 2021, after a spike in the week after the invasion.
Europe depends on Russia for more than a third of its gas
According to the International Energy Agency, around 40% of the gas consumed in Europe comes from Russia. The EU announced restrictions on oil and gas imports after Russia invaded Ukraine in February and plans to reduce its reliance on Russian fuel by two-thirds this year.
It has also halted its ambitious Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, as reported by Insider’s Bill Bostock. The pipeline, owned mostly by Russian gas company Gazprom, cost 10 billion euros ($11.5 billion) to build and was expected to transport 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
The bloc ultimately wants to end its dependence on Russian gas by 2030 by increasing flows from other suppliers and building up renewable sources.
But Russia’s President Vladimir Putin isn’t taking the threat of a European ban on Russian energy as seriously as EU leaders might like.
“The so-called partners from unfriendly countries admit that they will not be able to do without Russian energy resources, including natural gas,” Putin said at a televised government meeting on April 14, Reuters reported.
Indeed, a ban on Russian oil and gas has met fierce opposition from European economies dependent on Russian sources. The EU is considering expanding its sanctions to include a ban on Russian coal instead.
However, experts suggest that the EU could cope with such a ban. And last week, Putin’s former chief economic adviser Andrei Illarionov told the BBC’s Talking Business that completely curbing Russian gas and oil flows into Europe would end the war “in a matter of months.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on April 7 that Europeans would pay for Russian gas with Ukrainian lives.