The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic announced zero gas supplies from Russia in January

In January, the Czech Republic did not receive even a cubic meter of Russian gas, since the fall of last year, only 2.2% of the total share of supplies came from imports from Russia, Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic Josef Sikelu said on Twitter.

As the minister clarified, from the moment of the termination of supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline, gas from Russia can only be supplied to the Czech Republic through Slovakia. From September to the end of January, the republic received only 2.2% of Russian gas, and in January “there was not even a cubic meter.”

Russian supplies via Germany have been replaced by gas from Norway, as well as liquefied natural gas from Belgium and the Netherlands, Sikelu said.

“Last year, the opposition threatened that we would not survive the winter without Russian gas. We promised otherwise and did our best to do so. It is based on record stocks before the start of winter, alternative supplies and savings.” the minister wrote.

As a result, the minister notes, the price has dropped significantly, and gas reserves are above average. The Czech Republic also managed to reduce energy consumption from October to the end of January by almost 28% compared to the same period last year. Thus, the republic saved more than 850 million cubic meters. m. of gas, said Sikelu.

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed from April 1, 2022 to transfer payments for gas supplies to unfriendly countries from dollars and euros to rubles. At the end of April, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that the Czech Republic would not pay for Russian gas in rubles, because this was a violation of EU anti-Russian sanctions.

Previously, the Czech Republic could receive gas from Russia along three routes: in transit through Ukraine, through the Yamal-Europe and Nord Stream gas pipelines. But deliveries through Ukraine since May 2022 have been carried out only through one of the two gas measuring stations, deliveries via the Yamal-Europe pipeline actually stopped at the end of 2021, and Nord Stream and the non-launched Nord Stream 2 suffered as a result sabotage. Now Russian gas supplies to the Czech Republic are carried out only through the GTS of Ukraine.

In autumn it was reported that the Czech Republic will receive part of the capacity of the LNG terminal in the Netherlands for 3 billion cubic meters. m. Leased capacities will be enough to cover a third of the annual needs of Czech consumers in gas, wrote the CTK agency.

In February, the Czech company CEZ announced that it had initiated international arbitration proceedings against “Gazprom exports (100% subsidiary of Gazprom) due to shortages of gas supplies in 2022.