MELBOURNE: Russia is ready to resume gas supplies to Europe through and it can also send supplies to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the long term, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TASS news agency.

“The European market remains relevant, as the gas shortage persists, and we have every opportunity to resume supplies,” TASS cited Mr Novak as saying.

“For example, the Yamal-Europe Pipeline, which was stopped for political reasons, remains unused,”

The Yamal-Europe Pipeline usually flows westward but has been mostly reversed since December of 2021 as Poland turned away from buying from Russia in favour of drawing on stored gas in Germany.

In May, Warsaw terminated its agreement with Russia, after earlier rejecting Moscow’s demand that it pays in roubles. Russian supplier Gazprom responded by cutting off supply and also said it would no longer be able to export gas via Poland after Moscow imposed sanctions against the firm that owns the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline. Mr Novak also reiterated that Moscow is discussing additional gas supplies through Turkey after the creation of a hub there.

He also said that Moscow expects it will have shipped 21 billion cubic metres (bcm) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe in 2022.

“This year we were able to significantly increase LNG supplies to Europe,” Mr Novak said. “In the 11 months of 2022, they increased to 19.4 bcm, by the end of the year 21 bcm are expected.”

In a wide-ranging interview with the TASS agency, parts of which have been published throughout the weekend, Mr Novak also said that Russia has agreed with Azerbaijan to increase gas supplies for its domestic consumption.

“In the future, when they increase gas production, we will be able to discuss swaps,” he said.

Moscow is also discussing higher supplies of its gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, he said.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2022