Despite disputes, Russian gas still attracts some European countries, Gazprom reveals huge volume

Russia is still 'pumping' large amounts of gas to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, even though it has no direct contracts. (Source: Gazprom).

Before the conflict in Ukraine broke out, Russia was Europe’s largest gas supplier. However, the European Union (EU) is trying to reduce its energy dependence on Moscow, causing it to lose most of its customers in the region.

Currently, Russia still supplies large amounts of gas to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, although it does not have direct contracts.

A smaller amount of oil is still going to Italy and Serbia.

On November 16, Gazprom - Russia's state-owned oil and gas corporation - stopped supplying gas to Austria's largest energy corporation - OMV.

This comes after OMV warned it would withhold gas from Gazprom as part of compensation for an arbitration award over a contract dispute between the two parties.

Although Moscow's gas supplies to Vienna were still interrupted on November 17, Gazprom confirmed that the total volume of Russian gas supplied via Ukraine - the main transit route to the EU - remained at 42.4 million cubic meters per day.

This is the same level as before the gas outage in Austria.

At that time, Austria received about 17 million cubic meters of gas per day from Russia, which was resold to other buyers in Europe.

Slovakia's state-owned energy company SPP also confirmed that it is still importing gas from Russia and said that demand for Russian gas in Europe remains high.

Gas from Russia is still cheaper than many other sources, a source said.

Vienna revealed it was preparing for the possibility that Moscow would stop gas supplies.