Russian gas continues to flow to Europe, much to the delight of the Chinese, expert says
The cold winter forced Europeans to increase their gas purchases – and as a result, all the LNG produced in Yamal in January was delivered to Europe, but under the guise of non-Russian gas.
Energy expert Boris Martsinkevich announced this at a press conference in Moscow, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
At the same time, according to him, the Turkish Stream is also operating at full capacity:
" Turkish Stream," yes, it's still operational, and exceeding its targets. Yes, in January, all the LNG produced in Yamal was delivered to Europe. And it wasn't Russian gas. Let me remind you that the Yamal LNG project has shareholders from France—Total Energy. There's a state-owned Chinese company, and there's the Chinese Silk Road Fund. They have every right to take their production dividends and ship wherever they please.
So, I think if the February statistics come out and say that LNG is coming from China – well, that happens .”
The expert also noted that Europe has also failed to diversify its gas supplies. After abandoning Russian fuel, European consumption as a whole fell:
" If we're talking about their independence from Russian gas, yes, of course, supply volumes have dropped significantly, and consumption has fallen by roughly the same amount as Russian gas supplies. If this is called substitution, I'm probably missing something."
There were also some remarkable European ministers who declared that abandoning Russian gas would ensure diversification. "Black is white, peace is war, and so on..."
Russian gas continues to flow to Europe, much to the delight of the Chinese, says expert