CEO: Gazprom sees 2019 non-CIS gas exports at 198.6–201.1 bcm

ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 28 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom expects its natural gas exports to non-CIS countries to amount to 198.6–201.1 billion cubic meters in 2019, close to a historic record of 2018 of 201.9 bcm, CEO Alexei Miller said in a news conference on Friday following an annual general meeting of the company’s shareholders.

“We are saying today that our export forecast for Gazprom’s pipeline gas to the markets of the E.U. and Turkey in 2019 lies in a range from 198.6 billion cubic meters to 201.1 billion cubic meters,” he said.

The company may adjust the forecast very soon, he added.

He also said that Gazprom was ready to repeat or even improve its record for daily gas exports to the E.U. The current record amounts to 713.4 million cubic meters, and it was set on March 2, 2018.

The share of Gazprom on the European gas market stands at 35.5–37.5%, he said.

He also said that the company will be able to pump more than the planned amount of 11.4 bcm of gas into the European underground gas storages before the next heating season starts. “We will pump as much as we can,” he said.

NORD STREAM-2, TURKSTREAM

Works on the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline have been finished by 60.4%, Miller said.

“Works on the Nord Stream-2 are going on schedule, there have been no diversions from the initial schedule as of today. Currently, 1,482 kilometers of two threads of the pipeline were laid, which accounts for 60.4% of the combined length of the two threads of the pipeline,” he said.

The project has passed the point of no return a long time ago, there are no ways to stop it legally. The pipeline will be finished before the end of 2019, he said.

It is difficult to estimate the impact on the pipeline that the amendments to the E.U. gas directive, approved recently, would have, as Germany has not yet implemented the amendments into its legislation, he said.

He also said that the director of Nord Stream 2 AG, the project company for construction of the pipeline, was at a meeting at the Danish Energy Agency at the moment discussing the Danish permit for the pipeline, and that the dialogue was constructive.

He also said that Bulgaria and Serbia are to expand their gas transportation systems until the end of 2019 in order to receive gas from the TurkStream gas export pipeline.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Gazprom is implementing the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, and France’s Engie. The length of the pipeline’s route exceeds 1,200 kilometers.

The TurkStream pipeline was designed to consist of two branches with a length of over 900 kilometers and a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters each. One of them, finished in May 2018, is to carry Russian gas to Turkey, while the other is to transit gas to the European countries through Turkey and is to be finished in 2019.

UKRAINIAN GAS TRANSIT

Gazprom has not received any official suggestions from Ukraine on possible replacement of a transit contract with a gas swap contract.

“Regarding the replacement of transit with a swap, you know, we have received no official suggestions from the Ukrainian side. These are only statements made by some managers of Naftogaz Ukrainy in social networks. We obviously don’t take such statements seriously,” Miller said.

Kiev will not be able to sign a new transit contract under the E.U. regulations until the end of the year. “Until expiration of the existing transit contract at the end of this year, Ukraine will not be able to sign a new contract under the E.U. legislation. This ship has sailed, they can follow it with their eyes,” he said.

“We say that we are ready to prolong the existing transit deal. We are only pointing to one aspect, we are obviously saying that this contract should be economically good for the Russian side.”

End