EU asking shippers for daily updates on Russian natural gas supply | StratRisks
Since Monday, the European Commission has been asking some European gas shippers via national regulators to fill in a form daily to check if nominations for natural gas are being met by physical flows from Russia, ICIS has learnt.
Some worry exists among EU leaders of a disruption in the supply of Russian gas to Europe. There is a fear that the flow of Russian gas transiting through Ukraine could be disrupted, although there has been no sign of this so far since the flare up geopolitical tensions in Ukraine. There is also a worry Russia could disrupt supply in response to sanctions or other reasons, even if this is viewed as unlikely.
A spokeswoman for the commission did not confirm the EU executive body has been requesting the information from shippers, but did say: “The commission, in cooperation with the member states, is closely monitoring the supply situation in the EU and in particular the gas flows through and to Ukraine, against the background of the situation in Ukraine.”
The form that has been sent each day by national regulators to shippers on behalf of the commission and seen by ICIS on Wednesday includes questions such as:
- million cubic metres/day [for] Previous day, Current day
- Quantity of gas requested by the shipper from Gazprom and affiliated companies
- Quantity confirmed/supplied by Gazprom and affiliated companies
- In case of deviation – reason given by Gazprom and affiliated companies? When was it notified?
- Is the deviation within the contractual range (yes/no)
- Are there notifications of reductions in the next days?
- Has the shipper been able to cover the missing gas volumes from other sources?
- Does the shipper see a risk of not being able to supply its consumers?
Sources polled by ICIS on Wednesday and last week said, so far, Gazprom has supplied gas volumes according to contracted nominations, within a range of flexible daily allowances in the supply contracts.
Earlier this month Polish incumbent PGNiG said it was receiving less gas than requested from Gazprom. But the company later confirmed there was a certain amount of elasticity to its contract with the Russian major, and that this was being used.