Russia is prepared to resume gas supplies to Europe through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which was stopped for political reasons, and will soon see more Russian gas coming back to the continent.
Russia is also discussing additional gas supplies through Turkey – after creating a hub there – as well as sending higher supplies of its gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and increasing gas supplies for Azerbaijan’s domestic consumption.
Announcing the news, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that as the gas shortage continues, there is an opportunity for supplies to resume, keeping the European market quite relevant, especially in light of the recently increased demand for gas due to the energy crisis Europe has been suffering with soaring energy prices.
Blaming the political tensions for the stop of the gas flow, Novak pointed out that it’s clear that a large-scale campaign – which ended with sabotage acts against the Nord Stream pipeline- was launched against Russia.
Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, there has been an energy standoff between Russia and Europe that’s still on.
As Poland turned away from buying gas from Russia in favor of drawing on stored gas in Germany in December 2021, the Yamal-Europe Pipeline, which usually flows westward, has instead been mostly reversed since.
Warsaw terminated its agreement with Russia previously in May after rejecting Moscow’s demand that it pays for the gas in roubles.
That rejection led to Moscow imposing sanctions against the company that owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline while the Russian supplier Gazprom responded by cutting off supply, claiming that it would no longer be able to export gas via Poland.
In the long term, as Novak further noted, Moscow can send Russian natural gas to Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s markets either by using Central Asian infrastructure or in a swap from Iran’s territory.
