Putin says Iran discussing gas supplies with Russia

“Iranian partners are also discussing with us the opportunities of Russian gas supplies to the Iranian market,” Putin stated.

Preparatory activities for the North – South corridor project are close to the end and construction can start shortly, the Russian President noted.

“We have agreements with all the participants in this process: relevant documents are in place with Iran, with Azerbaijan <…> Turkmenistan is showing interest from the other side of the Caspian Sea, and Kazakhstan,” the president added.

He also said the EU nations harmed themselves by rejecting Russian energy resources.

“However, the world has a finite amount of resources for both production and consumption. They choose to cut back purchases from us in a certain area, overall consumption remains constant. You will thus need to make your purchases elsewhere. This is essential. You have to be utterly foolish to fail to comprehend this,” he said.

The president added that since the world consumption of energy resources, including oil, remains unchanged, it is impossible to do without supplies from Russia.

Russian gas was abandoned by European nations, and prices surged, Putin stressed.

He pointed out that some of Russia’s former allies in the US and, primarily, in Europe, started to cut off Russian energy supplies and impose restrictions.

“Those who introduce these restrictions are faced with problems that they cannot yet solve. They seemed to have abandoned our natural gas and prices have skyrocketed,” he said.

He did not go into specifics about the prices, describing them to have a speculative nature and giving the price of 9,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters as an example. “It is currently between 350 and 400 (euro). It doesn’t matter, they fluctuate and move back and forth somewhere within this [range]. However, this is a high price and a lot for the European market,” he added.

Russia has almost found at the moment an alternative to the European gas market, President Putin said.

“We have actually found [it]. Volumes [of supplies] are smaller than to the European continent but they will grow as the economy of these countries will grow. I do not see any problems in this regard,” Putin continued.

Europe is not coping with the situation without Russian gas and is even short of physical volumes of this resource, the Russian leader added.