The gas price in Europe continues to rise to new records: This week it exceeded the mark of 2000 dollars per thousand cubic meters for the first time.

There were several reasons for this - including low temperatures and a decline in the output of German wind turbines due to unfavorable weather conditions.

Once again, however, the rise in prices also had something to do with Russia.

Its state-controlled gas company Gazprom had since the weekend significantly reduced its deliveries through one of three central pipeline systems from east to west, the Yamal-Europe line, which leads via Belarus and Poland to Germany.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

  • Follow I follow

Katharina Wagner

Business correspondent for Russia and the CIS based in Moscow.

  • Follow I follow

Gas was even pumped back to Poland from Germany on Tuesday, which normally holds some of the gas supplied by Russia.

The reversal of the gas flow obviously fueled fears among market participants that Russia could further reduce its deliveries even after the onset of winter and although the European gas storage facilities are still significantly less full than usual.

Germany: Don't be afraid of gas shortages

The Ministry of Economics, Energy and Climate Protection, now headed by the Greens Robert Habeck, sees no cause for concern, like under his predecessor Peter Altmaier (CDU), despite the enormously high prices. “We are monitoring the situation very closely. We currently have no signs of supply bottlenecks, "said a spokeswoman. It is true that the gas storage levels are 56 percent lower than in previous years. But drains are normal in the cold season, this is the "purpose of the reservoir". They were mainly used to cover peak loads on cold winter days; the German market is not supplied from the storage facilities alone. In addition, the German storage capacities are the fourth largest in the world and the largest in the EU,so that the absolute amounts are still higher than in other countries, even with lower storage levels. In Great Britain, for example, there are only just under 10 terawatt hours available, in Germany it is around 240.

In the gas price crisis, Russia is accused of deliberately filling its European storage facilities slowly and only supplying the minimum of the agreed gas quantities in order to force the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline to go into operation soon, which has been completed but not yet certified for Europe. Kremlin spokesman Dmitrij Peskov rejected a connection between the delivery stop via the Yamal line and Nord Stream 2 on Tuesday. The interruption in delivery is a "purely commercial" matter, according to Peskow. A spokesman for Gazprom said the group continues to fulfill all long-term supply contracts “according to orders”. Which transport route this happens is a matter for the group. The spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics also confirmed that the long-term supply contracts would be adhered to.On the short-term spot market, however, there is “still high demand and, as a result, high prices”.

Gas is becoming a means of political pressure

While energy experts believe it is possible that Gazprom is simply reacting to a decline in orders from European customers in view of the high gas prices with the Yamal stop, experts in Russia see the events in a political context. "It can hardly be proven, but it is very astonishing, that the deliveries through the Yamal pipeline are interrupted just when the saber rattling around the Ukraine increases", says Stefan Meister, energy expert of the German Society for Foreign Policy in Berlin, and plays of a massive deployment of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and increasing threats of war from Moscow against Kiev. Gas prices are high regardless of the Yamal stop, said Meister, but they could fall if Russia exported more gas. The country has the possibilitiesbut do not use it to put the EU politically under pressure, said Meister.

There uncertainty is growing because, due to the low storage levels, nobody knows whether the economy and households can be adequately supplied in the cold months.

"What happens there are not just market decisions; it has to do with the fact that energy supply is a central part of Russian foreign and security policy," said Meister.

"Moscow is currently putting pressure on the EU with its gas deliveries." Among other things, President Vladimir Putin took advantage of the fact that a new government was in office in Germany that had "not yet found a clear line with regard to Russia".