Energy consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of nearly 40 per cent in the eurozone and 57 per cent in the UK, reflecting the surge in wholesale gas and oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is drastically eating into households’ disposable income.

The incentive to reduce gas consumption is huge after Putin reduced supplies to Germany via the Nord Steam 1 pipeline. The Dutch TTF gas contract, a European benchmark, is trading above 205 euros ($209) per megawatt hour, 10 times its average in the decade through 2020 and equivalent to about $350 per barrel of oil.

TotalEnergies said it would boost spending on short-cycle projects this year to help ease Europe's growing energy supply crunch. It expects its full-year capital spending to hit $16 billion in 2022 as it hopes to increase its sources of European natural gas and produce more LNG in the coming months.

The boom in STS activity involving Russian crude came as Moscow's seaborne oil exports defied Western sanctions to hit post-pandemic highs of 4 million b/d in April 2022.

Gas prices jumped more than 10% following Gazprom’s decision to reduce Nord Stream flows even further. Moscow has been curbing shipments to the EU for months over apparent retaliation for the bloc’s support for Ukraine and sanctions over Russia’s invasion.

Natural gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline will fall to 33 million cu m/d at 0700 Moscow time (0500 BST) due to the cessation of operations on another Siemens gas turbine at Portovaya

“The resumption this morning of flows along Nord Stream is likely to lead to a collective sign of relief from not just the European gas market, but from the wider economy,”

“Until now I thought we had shot ourselves in the foot,” Orban said. “Now it’s more like the European economy had shot itself in the lungs and it’s now struggling to breathe.”

"What is definitely problematic is to include energy into the sanctions, because a rule must be observed that the sanctions must have a greater impact on Russia than on the countries imposing the sanctions."

In June 2022 Gazprom had reduced gas supplies over the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 67 mcm/d (24.5 bcm/year).

Europe’s energy industry has been plunged further into turmoil since Russia deepened its supply cuts last month.

Russia's Gazprom on June 16 cut gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany to just 40% of capacity, citing maintenance issues with gas turbines at the key Portovaya compressor station.

Dutch front-month gas, the European benchmark, fell as much as 10%, and was 6.4% lower at 171.49 euros per megawatt-hour at 9:49 a.m. in Amsterdam. The contract has doubled over the past month. The UK equivalent declined 6.2%, but was also heading for a weekly gain.

Combined, OPEC+ crude production rose to a three-month high of 42.09 million b/d of June,

Dutch front-month gas, the European benchmark, traded 3.5% higher at 177 euros per megawatt-hour at 8:43 a.m. in Amsterdam.