“I’ve said it many times now this year and I’m also educating policymakers. Look, the worst is yet to come,” Uniper CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at Gastech 2022 in Milan, Italy. “What we’re seeing in the wholesale market is 20 times the price we’ve seen two years ago — 20 times. That’s why I think we need to really have an open conversation with everyone who’s taking responsibility about how to fix this,” he added. . . Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom has indefinitely cut off gas flows to Europe through a major pipeline, sparking fears that parts of Europe could be forced to ration energy until winter. Uniper, as Germany’s biggest natural gas importer, has been hit hard by sharply reduced pipeline gas flows from Russia, which have sent prices skyrocketing. Uniper has requested billions in financial aid from the German government as a result of rising gas and electricity prices. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The German government agreed in July to bail out Uniper in a 15 billion euro ($14.9 billion) rescue deal to give the struggling company some financial relief. Maubach said Tuesday that some of the details still need to be worked out with that stabilization package. The disruption of supplies from Russia via Nord Stream 1 and the subsequent rise in gas prices in Europe is likely to worsen the situation for the company. Uniper shares were down 3.5% on Tuesday morning. The Frankfurt-listed share price has fallen more than 88% year-to-date.
Cooperation with Gazprom is “broken”
Gazprom’s announcement came shortly after G-7 economic powers backed a plan to propose a cap on the price of Russian oil. Gazprom said the shutdown was due to an oil leak in a turbine. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which connects Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sec, was scheduled to reopen on Saturday after three days of maintenance work. Since then, the Kremlin has blamed European lawmakers for cutting off gas supplies through Nord Stream 1, saying economic sanctions imposed by the West after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had hampered repair work. It was widely interpreted as the clearest sign yet that Russia is likely to push for Europe to lift punitive economic sanctions in order for the Kremlin to turn the taps back on. EU policymakers have accused the Kremlin of rigging energy supplies in a bid to sow uncertainty across the 27-nation bloc and boost energy prices amid the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine. Asked if Uniper could work with Gazprom again should the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine end, Maubach said the company’s relationship with Russia stretched back to the 1970s and he had personally defended Gazprom as a reliable energy supplier after the start of the war. with Ukraine at the end of February. “That, in retrospect, maybe it was a mistake to think that no gas would be used. Maybe it was just wishful thinking,” Maubach said. “I think this partnership is broken and I don’t think we can restore it in the coming weeks, months and years. So we are focusing on replacing Russian gas,” he added.
