On Tuesday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the country’s gas giant Gazprom has started using its gas stockpiles to send more natural gas to the deprived market.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, on October 7, Gazprom pumped gas from a storage facility at Haidach in Austria for one day following a spike in gas prices to a record high.
Ryabkov commented, "We favor energy security of Europe. We want to work collaboratively... Gazprom has, in fact, started pumping out from its reserves into the pipelines to stabilize the market.”
He rejected any suggestion that Russia was withholding gas from the European market. "We work deliberately, quietly, soberly towards stabilization. Itis not in our interest to rock the boat further,” Ryabkov added.
The European Commission has received some requests to investigate Gazprom's role in the rising prices. The company is suspected of market manipulation and an effort to pressure Europe to agree on a fast launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.
