Gas from Russia continues to flow into the Czech Republic. In January, the import of Russian gas accounted for about 62% of the total volume.
This information was reported by Novinky.cz.
"If for most of last year the Czech Republic managed to drastically reduce gas imports from Russia compared to 2022 when the share of total imports was only 2% for the first ten months, then the statistics have been rapidly changing since November," the material states.
It became known early in December that the import of Russian gas to the Czech Republic through the Lanzhot station from Slovakia, which is the only border point through which Russian gas can enter the Czech Republic, had resumed. Now this is confirmed by data from the Czech Statistical Office, which published foreign trade statistics for December on Tuesday.
The data for January of this year shows that the trend of gas imports from Russia not only persists but even intensifies, with the share of total imports reaching nearly 62%.
A publication's source in the gas industry informed the that there is a version that one or two companies stored gas in reservoirs in Ukraine for the winter and are now importing it into the Czech Republic.
Economist JiÅ™í Pur from UniCredit Bank said that it is impossible for the statistics to be distorted by transit or resale of Russian gas to other countries.
"Because the vast majority of imported gas goes to the Czech Republic: the total outflow of gas from the Czech Republic abroad was only 9.8% of the total inflow in November, 4.8% in December, and 5.5% in January," Pur explained.
Although the EU has gradually reduced its dependence on Russian energy resources since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it continues to receive gas from Russia. Some countries in the European Union continue to import Russian gas despite the war against Ukraine. Hungary is one of the countries engaged in this practice.
