By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Russia is ready to supply more natural gas to head off a growing energy crisis, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, on a day when U.K. and continental spot prices again hit all-time highs.
"I would like to hear your suggestions as to what more we can do to stabilize global energy markets," Putin told ministers in a carefully stage-managed broadcast of his introductory statement at the start of a videoconferenced cabinet meeting. "We are ready to work on this, and we would like such work to be based on an absolutely commercial basis."
Russia is the one country capable of increasing gas flows substantially to European markets, where the shortage of gas is greatest, at short notice. However, the newly-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which gas monopoly Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) would use for such additional flows, is still awaiting certification from German regulators before it can ship gas.
Elsewhere in his comments, Putin repeated previous criticisms of what he called "mistaken" European policy shifts that had left the EU and U.K. markets vulnerable to supply squeezes, notably its refusal to sign new long-term contracts with Gazprom and its desire to buy more at spot prices.