The EU gas bipolar: to resume Russian gas supplies and to ban them at the same time

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented on the prospects for resuming Russian gas supplies to Europe to the Neft and Capital Internet portal.

Alexey Gromov said that from an economic point of view, it is beneficial for the Russian Federation to increase gas supplies to the European market, since it is the most premium for it. Moreover, there are resources for this.

But Russia will be ready to resume pumping large volumes only if there are no additional conditions from EU countries. They need to sort themselves out. Businesses want to increase supplies from Russia in order to avoid the risk of shortages and rising prices, and the European Commission says it is necessary to renew the roadmap for the total abandonment of energy resources from Russia.

"Recently, there was a statement by the European authorities that it is possible to return to discussing the resumption of supplies from Russia, but on one condition, if Gazprom satisfies all the claims brought by EU companies in the Stockholm Arbitration starting in 2022. Of course, it makes no sense for a Russian holding company to do this.

Russia will increase gas supplies only under two conditions. The first is the European Union's rejection of any legal claims against the Russian side. The second is the removal of all barriers to the resumption of Nord Stream 2 (whose work has not been certified by either Germany or the EU for many years)," says the expert.

However, Alexey Gromov stressed that Europe, ultimately, would not strategically want to move away from increasing LNG supplies from the United States. Trade duties were imposed by both sides and almost immediately frozen for 90 days. There is a negotiation, a search for a compromise, which is likely to be found. For this reason, the expert is rather skeptical about the resumption of Russian gas supplies to the EU market, since all these talks on the part of Europe are not supported by any political initiatives.