As the head of the board of Naftogaz Yuri Vitrenko noted, Gazprom has sharply reduced the sale of its own gas in the European spot market despite the growing demand and limits the ability of other companies to supply additional volumes of gas to Europe and compete with Gazprom.
“This is the key reason for the crisis and record price increases in Europe. Gazprom’s actions are anti-competitive and have had significant negative consequences for all European consumers. Naftogaz, as one of the largest gas buyers in Europe, also suffers losses due to these abuses. Therefore, we ask the European Commission to respond appropriately to violations, “he said.
In its complaint, Naftogaz draws the attention of the European Commission to a number of specific abuses.
In particular, we are talking about Gazprom’s deliberate refusal to properly fill up gas storage facilities in the EU, which are owned by Gazprom or in which it has significant reserved volumes. In addition, the Russian company suddenly and for no good reason stopped selling gas through its own electronic platform. Having sufficient gas volumes and the ability to use the free transit capacities of the Ukrainian GTS, Gazprom refused to supply large volumes to the EU. Also, without good reason, Gazprom did not add a gas transmission point on the Russian-Ukrainian border to its electronic platform. In addition, Gazprom continues to block the export of gas produced in Russia by private companies, and also blocks the transit of gas from Central Asian countries to Europe, the NAC noted.
“The purpose of such actions is, in particular, the creation of an artificial gas shortage and pressure on the European Union to launch the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as soon as possible without complying with the requirements of European legislation. a record high of $ 1,921 per 1,000 cubic meters (as of December 21, 2021), “the message says.
The complaint also says to exclude discriminatory approaches on the part of Gazprom when using Nord Stream 2, the Ukrainian gas transportation system and other transit routes along which Russian gas is transported to Europe.
Therefore, Naftogaz asks the European Commission to take a set of immediate interim measures. In particular, Naftogaz asks the EC to oblige Gazprom to put up for sale through an electronic platform significant volumes of gas for delivery on the Ukrainian-Russian border, or at least on the border of Ukraine and the EU countries. At the same time, Gazprom’s clients will be able to buy gas, in particular, on the Russian-Ukrainian border for further independent booking of GTS capacities and transportation to Europe and / or pumping gas into Ukrainian UGS facilities. In addition, Gazprom must provide the technical capabilities of its gas transmission system for gas export by private Russian production companies, as well as for the transit of gas from Central Asian countries.
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