ChatGPT Fake Gas News: EU Did Not Resume Talks with Russia

Gas at 30 €/MWh: The ChatGPT-Invented Story No One Checked

The text bore a Brussels dateline, August 29, 2023, an attributed quote from Ursula von der Leyen, and a bold headline: the European Union was reopening negotiations on Russian gas to rescue German industry. It was written in two minutes using ChatGPT. It cited no sources. Yet it spread, with the same enthusiasm as the link meant to back it up—a link that led nowhere. Just below, another link pointed to the fact debunking the narrative: European gas was already around 30 euros per megawatt-hour.

What is the price of gas in Europe?

The most repeated reference came from Bloomberg: European gas traded around 35 euros (38 dollars) per megawatt-hour, compared to an average of just over 20 euros between 2010 and 2020. This differential supports everything that trinc. Some read it as proof that Europe pays dearly for its break with Moscow; others retort that comparing a ten-year average with a spot price is sleight of hand. The underlying question—how much has it really risen—has a simple answer, used by neither side to their advantage.

Since February 2022, forecasts of energy collapse have repeated every autumn: blackouts, rationing, public bonfires. None occurred as announced, and that has not stopped the next announcement. The winter is coming mechanic worked for one year. By the second, it no longer did.

Russian LNG Imports Rise 40% and Compensate Nothing

An uncomfortable fact for those claiming Europe has cut off Russian gas: Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports grew by 40% in 2023 compared to pre-invasion levels, according to Global Witness analysis of Kpler data. Between January and July that year, the EU spent over 5.29 billion euros on this hydrocarbon, with Spain and Belgium as the largest buyers.

The counterstroke came quickly. Europe bought 7 BCM more of Russian LNG and stopped acquiring 120 BCM via pipelines. Forty percent of a small business remains small, and no relative figure masks the absolute drop: hence the alerts regarding Gazprom’s accounts. On the other side of the balance sheet, European defense relies on more reserves, more LNG carriers, and 70,000 additional megawatts of renewables.

Why Does the EU Buy Russian Fertilizer If It Sanctions Its Gas?

Imports of Russian fertilizers into the EU multiplied by five in the last cited fiscal year. The reason is chemical and economic: gas accounts for four-fifths of the cost of producing ammonia. While intensive gas production became unprofitable in Germany, the German fertilizer industry operated at a loss, and Brussels continued buying from the same supplier, just in the form of urea. Fertilizers are not subject to sanctions. The contradiction, however, is identical.

Nord Stream: From Sabotage to 'Common Sense'

On August 28, 2023, the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, defended in an interview keeping options open with Moscow after the war and called repairing Nord Stream 1 “the most normal thing in the world.” Without negotiations, he argued, there would be many more deaths and no exit. The energy calculation is on the table: adding the 55 BCM from Nord Stream 2 would increase flows to Europe and pressure prices downward. The signatory of that pipeline, however, no longer signs from a position of strength.

Five Minutes of Verification and a Click No One Made

The fabricated news required no bots or complicit media. It sufficed to fill the gap the reader already had open. Confirmation bias—documented for decades—explains why information fitting expectations is shared and not checked. It also explains the rest: real analyses, with figures and links, received less attention than the invention.

The accusation of sectarianism was launched in both directions, and neither side emerged unscathed. Some pointed out that the digital environment amplifies what is already believed and punishes what contradicts it. Others recalled that the EU-US agreement to secure LNG for two years was closed in 2022 and that US gas accumulates liquefaction, transport, and regasification costs. Regarding exactly how much this process increases costs, disagreement remains alive: 5% according to some, much more according to others.

With gas stabilized in a band doubling prices from the past decade, energy-intensive European industry will continue losing ground quarter by quarter. If reserves fill up and winter behaves, collapse forecasts will once again be exposed, as every year. And if it does not behave, those who swallowed the invented news will finally have the alibi they have sought since 2022. Neither depends on what a text generated in two minutes says.