Finance

Finance

Gazprom says unable to meet greater Europe gas demand

06 February 2012 07:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Russian gas exporter Gazprom has brought supplies to Europe back up to normal after reducing them "for a few days", but it is unable to meet increased demand amid freezing weather, a company official told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday, Reuters reported.

European countries had reported that Gazprom, which responsible for around a quarter of European Union’s natural gas imports, reduced supplies to them due to a biting cold front, while they also requested more fuel for heating.

Gazprom has been saying it had not breeched any contractual obligations. But on Saturday its chief financial officer, Andrey Kruglov, told Putin the company had cut gas supplies to Europe by up to 10 percent for a few days before returning them to normal levels.

However, the company cannot supply more gas, he said. "We see that they are requesting more... But Gazprom at the moment cannot supply the extra volumes our West European partners are asking for," Kruglov told Putin.