Crisis boosts Gazprom

SOARING gas prices across europe have helped the world’s largest gas producer post record earnings.

Russian giant Gazprom is benefiting from a historic surge in prices amid a supply crunch in europe.

Gazprom deputy chairman Famil Sadygov said earnings of £15bn in the nine months to the end of September were ‘already higher than in any full calendar year in the company’s history’.

Gazprom provides 40pc of europe’s gas but the group has promised to ramp this up amid shortages across the continent.

The UK has been one of the hardest hit by the crisis. It had traditionally been a big producer of gas but output has fallen since 2000 while usage continues to rise.