The first five months of this year witnessed Gazprom delivering substantially less gas to foreign destinations than in the previous year.  27.6 percent or 23.2 billion cubic meters of gas, to be precise.

At the same time, Gazprom transported more gas than previously to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline.  The concern did not mention any numbers.

Also during this period Gazprom lost several customers in Europe.  This was a consequence of Russian President Vladimir Putin insisting that all transactions for Russian gas be made in Russian rubles, something they were not prepared to do.  Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands have all landed on Putin's Black List.

All of the EU member states are trying to reduce their dependency of Russian oil and gas. Oil is a relatively easy hydrocarbon to agree upon, but gas has led to many intra-EU squabbles, and solely because of their reliance on Russian gas to power their economies and warm their homes.