BERLIN: German gas company VNG on Friday became the latest European energy firm to seek government aid as reduced Russian pipeline flows pushed up energy prices and put its business under stress.

VNG, Germany’s third-largest gas importer and storage operator, asked for support to “avert further losses” and allow the group’s “business operations as a whole to continue”, it said in a statement.

Russia has slowly dwindled supplies of gas to Europe in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, sending prices for the fuel soaring.

Unfulfilled contracts meant “gas quantities had to be procured at significantly higher prices” on the open market to meet supply arrangements with customers at “significantly lower, contractually agreed prices”, VNG said.