Constructing the Export Infrastructure

Abstract

Through the addition of West Germany, Italy, Finland, and France to the Soviet Union’s list of capitalist markets, Moscow’s gas export commitments jumped to completely new levels. Whereas Austria, the only capitalist country so far to actually import red gas, received 1.5 bcm annually, Italy and Germany would together import 9 bcm per year according to the contracts signed in 1969–1970. The second German contract and the first French contract signed in 1972 added another 8 bcm. Finland was to receive 1.4 bcm or more. At the same time, exports to Poland (1.5 bcm), Czechoslovakia (2.5 bcm), East Germany (at least 3 bcm), and Bulgaria (3 bcm) were to be initiated or expanded. Total Soviet deliveries were scheduled to grow steeply from less than 5 bcm per year in the early 1970s to 7.4 bcm in 1973, 17.2 bcm in 1974, and 24.7 bcm in 1975. The first big test would come in 1973, when exports to Italy and the two Germanies would commence.