OREANDA-NEWS. The representative of the US State Department, Amos Hochstein, in an interview with Bloomberg, demanded that Russia increase gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine.

The American official called Gazprom's refusal to book additional volumes of gas transit through Ukrainian territory for October" disturbing".

"In fact, gas pipelines with sufficient capacity run through Ukraine to provide gas to Europe. Russia has repeatedly stated that it has enough gas reserves to do this, so if this is true, it should do it as soon as possible through Ukraine, " Hochstein said.

At the same time, the representative of the Foreign Ministry of the United States about waiting for the "Nord Stream": the Europeans have not yet paid so much for gas.

Gas prices in Europe are breaking records — on September 15, at the moment, it reached $ 963.9 per thousand cubic meters, and on September 20, the estimated price was a record $ 911.2.

At the same time, Gazprom stressed on September 17 that it supplies gas to Europe in full compliance with the contracts, and also strives to satisfy requests for additional supplies — due to the available opportunities. This was a reaction to a letter from several MEPs who asked the European Commission to analyze Gazprom's actions in connection with the increase in gas prices.

The average occupancy of gas storage facilities in Europe as of September 19 was 72 percent, which is almost 14 percentage points lower than in the last five years.