- National Energy Action warns up to 1.5m more households could be plunged into fuel poverty next spring
- Analysts doubt Russia can pump more gas to Europe
Another analyst, Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, was also sceptical that Russia was able to supply more gas to Europe, noting that production was already at record levels.
“Russia’s been faced with the same demand pressures” as elsewhere, he noted. He told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe:
It was a very cold winter in Russia last winter and Russian production is actually at record levels, it’s well up on last year of course when demand was down, but it’s also up on 2019 levels, and they’ve been having to refill their own storage as well which was depleted badly because of the cold weather.
So it’s extremely doubtful whether they could supply more gas, whatever the route.
Comments from Mr Putin appear to have provided some comfort to the market. However, whether these additional gas supplies depend on a quick approval of Nord Stream 2 or not may not be the main issue.
Currently, the Russian domestic gas market remains tight, with its inventories running low, output already near its peak and winter looming in Russia as well, limiting gas export capacity.
It’s really important the government thinks now about what may need to be put in place come next spring when we’re going to see even more problems with people’s energy bills.
