Did The Winter War Just Begin? Russian Gas Supplies To Europe Plunge 15%, Ukraine Transit Slashed 54%
Tyler Durden’s pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 09/30/2014 10:39 -0400
Just a week ago, the Russian energy minister made the first public ‘threat’ of gas supply “throttling” disruptions to Europe but judging by the data that has just been released, it appears the ‘throttling’ has begun. Bloomberg reports that Russian gas supplies to Europe fell 15% year-over-year in Q3 – the most in over two years – as natural gas transit through Ukraine plunged 54% year-over-year. In 2013, Gazprom sent 60% of its supply via Ukraine pipelines, in August that dropped to 39%, and in September only 34%. Of course, Europe remains confident its storage efforts will buffer any “Winter War” disruptions, as we noted here, but as Citi warned previously, “if colder weather arrives, storage levels will be drained,” and then there is the Spring (and German industry needs).