The head of Gazprom called the reasons for changing the global energy system

MOSCOW, 31 Aug — PRIME. The global energy system is changing due to fundamentally wrong decisions of foreign regulators and sanctions policy, said the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller at a meeting dedicated to the Day of Oil and Gas Industry Workers.

“This year it (Oilman’s Day – ed.) takes place against the backdrop of large-scale changes that are taking place in the gas markets. And in general – against the backdrop of a radically changing entire global energy system,” Miller was quoted as saying in the transcript of the meeting.

“As we have repeatedly noted, the reasons for this lie in the erroneous – and not just erroneous, but fundamentally erroneous – decisions of foreign, Western regulators and in the sanctions policy,” he added.

First of all, we are talking about the fact that partners have begun to abandon traditional energy, from a system of long-term contracts for gas supplies to markets, which was a blow to the reliability and stability of gas supplies, Miller noted. At the same time, all these, according to him, erroneous decisions were made under enormous pressure from supporters of the so-called “accelerated decarbonization.” Such decisions led to a “price rally” in the gas trading floors, Miller is sure. The exchange price of gas regularly exceeds $3,000 per 1,000 cubic meters, he added.

In early March, gas prices in Europe, due to fears of a ban on the import of Russian energy resources, updated their historical highs for four days in a row. The price record of $3,892 per thousand cubic meters was reached on March 7. The latest increase in prices on European gas markets was due to uncertainty about gas supplies.

In mid-August, Gazprom announced that Nord Stream would stop for three days, from August 31 to September 2, due to scheduled maintenance of the only working gas pumping unit at the Portovaya compressor station. Futures contracts for the supply of gas in September (under TTF) after this news jumped by almost 8%, above $2,700 per thousand cubic meters, and then exceeded $3,500 for the first time since March, but fell by 10% at trading on Wednesday, to almost $2,400 per thousand cubic meters.