“The only point I was ever trying to make is that the new price Russia is demanding is the market price of gas in Europe, and that simple fact cannot be simply ignored.”
The problem with what you are focusing upon is the fact it amounts to a half truth when looked at in isolation of the overall circumstances, and it is the deceptive inference from such a half truth the supporters of Russia’s aggressions are trying to rely upon in a war of propaganda against the Ukraine. The so-called market price of Europe is distorted by Russia’s deliberate manipulation of those prices, particularly when looking at the market prices around the world.
Poland was mentioned as an example. Poland is paying even more for the Qatari LNG than for the Russian NG, but only to lessen its reliance upon the Russian supplies that are being used as political leverage agaisnt Poland and the other Russian customers. LNG is always considerably more expensive than NG because of the additonal costs associated with its production, sotrage, and handling versus NG from the wellhead to the pipeline. As a consequence the Polish costs for LNG and NG are presently comparable to the extra high prices seen in Asian markets where they too have limited access to sources of NG by wellhead to pipeline sources. Meanwhile, European NG pricing has changed since the Russian interruption of supplies in 2009 by diverging upwards from its former trends following the worldwide crude oil pricing trends and the U.S. pricing levels. This is why the pricing is described as abnormal and the result of Russian market manipulations with its state monopoly and predatory pricing strategies.
You do make some compelling arguments.
“The problem with what you are focusing upon is the fact it amounts to a half truth when looked at in isolation of the overall circumstances ....”
I agree that I was focused on a single fact. However, if that single fact was a half truth — then if it’s left out, nothing but another half truth is left.