Gazprom: Increases gas exports in 2021 – Did not reach pre-pandemic levels

LAST UPDATE: 17:29

Gazprom increased its exports to its main buyers, Europe, Turkey and China last year, but flows remained below pre-coronary levels as the producer cut off supplies to the EU as a whole in the middle of the year. worst continental energy crisis in decades.

Gazprom delivered 185.1 billion cubic meters to its main customers abroad, including Turkey, China and Europe, excluding the countries of the former Soviet Union, CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement on Sunday. This is 3.2% above 2020 levels, but lower than in 2018 and 2019, which was about 200 billion cubic meters.

Deliveries to Europe and Turkey were about 177 billion cubic meters last year, according to estimates by Bloomberg News and BCS Global Markets based on Gazprom data. This figure falls short of Gazprom’s forecast for exports to Europe and Turkey of up to 183 billion cubic meters. This is a forecast that the company insisted on from the spring and which it maintained until the end of October, even when Europe was asking for more supplies.

Gazprom’s exports have been closely monitored, as limited supplies to Europe sent prices to record levels. With winter in the region and stocks in the region dangerously low, the Russian company only sends as much gas to EU customers as it owes under long-term contracts, and has not offered spot shipments for months.

It is not clear why Gazprom was reluctant to offer spot cargo in Europe. While the company has pointed to falling demand as a result of regional price spikes, European officials say the Russian producer is deliberately holding them back to speed up approvals for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in question.

Gazprom presents detailed export data by country, which makes it difficult to estimate 2021 flows to individual markets.

However, Miller said that the largest increase in deliveries concerns its three top European customers, Germany, Turkey and Italy. Flows to China exceeded Gazprom’s contractual obligations throughout 2021, according to Miller.

Increase production

Gazprom gas production for 2021 reached 514.8 billion cubic meters, the highest level since 2008. The daily production in December was on average 1.523 billion cubic meters, the highest since 2013 for this month .

With Russian pipeline exports to most EU countries curtailed in December, most of the extra gas remained inland as unusually low temperatures prevailed in the final days of the year.

As temperatures plummeted, deliveries to domestic customers in late December rose sharply to 1.656 billion cubic meters per day, Gazprom said, higher than its average daily production levels for December. To meet demand, the company said withdrawals from local underground warehouses reached a five-year high.

Russia has the luxury of extracting record quantities from its reserves as Gazprom filled its domestic warehouses with historically high volumes of 72.6 billion cubic meters of gas by November.