Faced with a cold snap, some Gazprom customers in Europe have complained that deliveries of Russian natural gas have declined, but Gazprom said they were asking for above-contract volumes, a Gazprom export official, Sergei Komlev, said on Friday.
"They are asking for more than we are obligated to deliver," Komlev, department head for contract structuring and price formation, said on the sidelines of the Russia 2012 forum.
Gazprom is currently delivering as much as it can under current contracts, which stipulate daily and monthly gas supply volumes, he said.
Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom's export chief, said on Thursday that the company has increased gas supplies to Europe and Ukraine as temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius. However, several EU states have complained they are receiving less gas.
European Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzner told RIA Novosti that Russia reduced gas deliveries to Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy and Germany from Wednesday. According to her data, supplies to Slovakia and Austria were reduced by 30 percent, to Italy by 24 percent and to Poland by 8 percent.
The EU states have had to compensate for lower deliveries of Russian gas by importing from other suppliers and by using stored volumes, Holzner said.
Gazprom exported 150 billion cubic meters of gas in 2011, including 112 bcm to Western Europe.
