Russian gas supplies to European Union countries and Turkey fell sharply between January and April compared with the same period in 2021, while supplies to China exploded, Gazprom announced on Sunday.
“Exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (EU and Turkey, editor’s note) amounted to 50.1 billion cubic meters, a decrease of 26.9 percent from the same period in 2021,” the group said in a statement controlled by the Russian state, without providing an explain.
Gazprom made it clear that it will continue to supply gas “in full compliance with its contractual obligations”.
During the same period, the gas giant said its production fell 2.5% year-on-year to 175.4 billion cubic meters.
Deliveries to the domestic market also fell by 3.7% “especially due to the hot weather in February”.
On the other hand, through the Siberian gas pipeline, exports to China have exploded, increasing by 60% in a year.
Gazprom also said that gas reserves in European underground storage facilities stood at 6.9 billion cubic meters.
“To reach the EU target of 90 percent filling of storage facilities, the company will have to extract an additional 56 billion cubic meters of gas,” Gazprom said.
“Replenishing gas reserves in European underground facilities is a very serious challenge,” the group assured, stressing that there are technical constraints on daily transmission capacity, “to a large extent the total amount of gas available in the European market depends on the growing Asian demand market”.
Energy prices in Europe have soared as the EU has so far failed to impose an embargo on Russian oil and gas on its own.
Gazprom posted a record net profit in 2021, boosted by strong growth in hydrocarbon demand, rising 13-fold in one year to 2.159 billion rubles (nearly 28 billion euros at current exchange rates).