“In the short term, neither Europe nor Russia has any interest to cut the gas supplies,” GDF Suez’s Chairman and Chief Executive Gérard Mestrallet said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The current crisis has ignited fears that Moscow could stop gas flowing to countries in the European Union, as the bloc has backed Ukraine in its spat with Russia over Crimea and Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.
Some European nations, such as the Baltic countries, fully rely on Russian gas for their energy. For its part Russia, which is currently experiencing substantial capital outflows, relies on oil and gas for about 70% of its external revenues.
Mr. Mestrallet said the deputy chief executive of Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev, had reassured French customers that the company would keep gas flowing to Europe during a visit to Paris this week. About 14% of France’s imported gas comes from Russia, according to French industry figures.
