There is no great threat of halting gas supplies
22:35
During the first five days of the invasion, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine more than doubled (from around 55 million m3 /d to 117 million m3 /d). At the same time, the use of the Yamal gas pipeline has also increased. It entered Poland by an average of 52 percent of more Russian gas than in February, of which about 2.4 million m3 / d (3% of the Mallnow interconnection capacity) was sent to Germany. In total, the transit of Russian gas to the EU increased by more than 20 percent during this period, the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) reported.
If the Russian side decides to immediately suspend supplies to the EU, in March most Member States will be able to meet their energy needs through domestic extraction, import of Norwegian, Algerian, and Azerbaijani gas, the use of LNG terminals, and gas storage facilities.
Some countries will have to make use of the storage resources of other Member States in such circumstances. However, Finland would be in a difficult position.
As PIE states, the radical reduction in the supply of Russian gas on the European market is now less of a threat to the European economy than a few months ago. According to weather forecasts, the rest of this year's winter will be mild. This will translate into lower gas demand, similar to previous years.
