Alexander Titov, head of oil market research at the Institute for Energy and Finance, gave a comment to Respublika.ru on Russia's ability to redirect energy flows from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region.
But with Russian gas, the situation is quite different. Since March 23, serious disagreements have arisen in the world over procurement. The reason for the new sanctions confrontation was Putin's statement that now "unfriendly states" must buy gas for rubles.“Russia can load some falling volumes on tankers in the Black Sea and send, for example, to India. Yes, it will take longer, but it is feasible,” Alexander Titov comments.
The G7 countries have already stated that they will not agree to buy natural gas in rubles. The G7 includes the USA, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada. And the Kremlin has already included all of them in the list of “unfriendly states” to Russia. Converting payments into rubles is in itself a violation of contracts, explains Titov. But at the same time, it will be very difficult for Europe to completely abandon Russian gas, the expert believes: “When sanctions against Russia are discussed, the weak point of Europeans and Americans is that there are no free capacities now. There are no countries that can quickly replace Russian supplies to them.” Thus, the sanctions confrontation drives both sides to a dead end. This may cause an even greater increase in the price of gas, which has been trading above $1,000 per thousand cubic meters in recent months. For comparison, the average price in the contracts of "Gazprom" is prescribed at the level of 200-300 dollars. Russia has been scaring Europe since last autumn with an even sharper increase in the price of natural gas. And now, against the backdrop of growing inflation everywhere, this threat is acquiring a new dimension.
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