Jonas Grätz on Gazprom’s failures and the need for the EU to rethink its suppliers

Jonas Grätz, a researcher with the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, writes for New Eastern Europe on the failure of Gazprom to keep up with EU demand, mostly due to inproper storage facilities and unrealiable actions. As a result, the EU should reconsider and diversify its gas suppliers.

Gazprom: Selective reliability as a power instrument
By: Jonas Grätz

Gazprom’s failure to meet the European Union’s gas demand during the February cold snap confirms yet again that state and business are so closely intertwined that the gas giant’s reliability is seriously hampered. The supply shortfall shows once again that the EU is in urgent need of a diversification of gas suppliers, as the premise of stable supplies from Russia is crumbling fast.

The shortfall in gas supply during the recent cold period in February 2012 was in essence directly caused by Russia’s both long-term investment decisions and more immediate decisions at the gas tap. When Gazprom reduced deliveries one could hear the argument that they could “simply not meet demand” due to the extreme temperatures in Russia, as if this was simply an issue of bad luck. But most things in life do not happen by chance and, indeed, Gazprom has withstood similar winters in the past. So what were the problems this year?

To read the full article click here: https://www.neweasterneurope.eu/node/225