European gas futures are continuing to make gains as Russia remains adamant about limiting its supply to the region. Despite Russia’s promise of extra volumes, national exporter Gazprom PJSC has not arranged any extra capacity in order to supply Europe with more gas via Ukraine in December.
While it is not too late for Gazprom to book extra capacity for this cause, the European gas market is already under strain as the current Russian supply has been far lower than regular seasonal norms over the last month.
It’s widely believed that Europe will not receive any increase in gas supply from Russia until the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline is complete and ready to begin shipments. This is in contrast to what many industry analysts believed, namely, that Gazprom would indeed redirect Yamal-Europe shipments to Ukraine after Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to interrupt the supply as more sanctions from the European Union come into effect.
Concerns over the limited gas supply become more urgent as signs of the first winter cold front loom over the European continent.
To add extra stress to the mix, Europe also faces a bottleneck in supply from Norway. As stated by Norwegian supplier Troll, supply will be reduced by 28% over the next three days due to a compressor failure.
