Czechia increases import of Russian gas to more than 60%

"If during most of last year, Czechia managed to radically reduce gas imports from Russia compared to 2022, when in the first ten months the share of total imports amounted to only 2%, then since November the statistics are changing rapidly," the article says.

Already at the beginning of December, it became known that the import of Russian gas to Czechia through the Lanzhhot station from Slovakia, which is the only border point through which Russian gas can enter Czechia, has resumed.

Now this is confirmed by the data of the Czech Statistical Office, which published foreign trade statistics for December on Tuesday.

Data for January of this year show that the trend of gas imports from Russia not only persists but even increases, when the share of total imports reached almost 62%.

What could this be related to?

A source in the gas industry reported that there is a version that one or two companies stored gas in tanks in Ukraine for the winter and are now importing it to the Czech Republic.

Economist of UniCredit Bank Jiri Pour said that the statistics can't be distorted by the transit or resale of Russian gas to other countries.

"Because the vast majority of imported gas goes to Czechia: the total outflow of gas from Czechia abroad was only 9.8% of the total inflow in November, 4.8% in December and 5.5% in December," Poor explained.

Russian gas in Europe

Although the EU gradually reduced its dependence on Russian energy carriers after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it still receives gas from Russia. Some EU countries continue to import Russian gas, despite the war against Ukraine. In particular, Hungary is engaged in this.

It was recently reported that Spain increased its imports of Russian gas last year by 35%. Most of it comes to the country by sea.

But supplies are still decreasing. According to Reuters, Gazprom's supply to Europe in 2023 has more than halved.