Alexei Miller, Gazprom’s chief executive, warned in a speech in Italy last week of a looming “supply crunch” in the oil market after 2012, caused by under-investment today, which could send oil and gas prices soaring.

A few days later, he drove that warning home in the most vivid way possible, with Gazprom’s own investment cuts and production delays raising the spectre of a gas supply crunch in Europe.