Jitters In Europe As Russia Shows No Sign Of Increasing Gas Supplies

With high prices and energy dependence lingering European concerns about tight supplies deepens, as Russia showed no sign on Monday of carrying out an order by President Vladimir Putin to pump more gas to Europe, as winter looms.

In a sign of those concerns, the Dutch TTF December gas futures contract — a European benchmark — rose almost 10% on Monday before easing.

The Kremlin has said Russia is committed to sending more gas to Europe once its domestic storage tanks are replenished, in line with Putin’s order to state energy company Gazprom , which said this would be done by Monday.

But Gazprom has booked no new capacity on a gas transit pipeline via Ukraine, and flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline into Germany from Poland were at zero on Monday, data on German transmission company Gascade’s website showed.

With Gazprom’s production and exports near record highs, and its European storage at about one third of the levels of a year ago, some European politicians say Russia can do more to reduce prices and consumer bills.

They are concerned that Moscow is using the situation for political purposes and accuse Russia of manipulating the market to push up prices. Russia denies this.