MOSCOW: Russian gasoline provides to Europe by way of Ukraine are set to finish on New Yr’s Day, bringing down the curtain on Moscow’s lengthy interval of dominance of provide within the European gasoline market.
Russia’s oldest gasoline export path to Europe, a pipeline courting again to Soviet days, was set to close on the finish of 2024, as a 5 12 months transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires. Information from Ukraine’s gasoline transit operator confirmed on Tuesday (Dec 31) that Russia had not requested any gasoline flows for Jan 1.
The European Union drastically lowered its dependency on Russian gasoline after the outbreak of the warfare in Ukraine in February 2022 by in search of different gasoline sources.
The remaining consumers of Russian gasoline reminiscent of Slovakia and Austria have organized for different provides, and analysts foresee minimal market impression from the stoppage. European benchmark gasoline costs settled at 48.50 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday, solely marginally up from opening commerce.
Stopping the gasoline move can have a a lot greater geopolitical significance, nonetheless.
Moscow has misplaced its dominant share of gasoline provides to international locations within the European Union to rivals reminiscent of the USA, Qatar and Norway because it invaded Ukraine, which prompted the EU to chop its dependence on Russian gasoline.
As soon as the world’s greatest gasoline exporter, state-controlled Gazprom recorded a US$7 billion loss in 2023 alone, its first annual loss since 1999.
For Europe, the lack of low-cost Russian gasoline provides contributed to a significant financial slowdown, a spike in inflation and the worsening of a price of dwelling disaster.
