UPDATE 2: Gazprom raises Jan–Jun non-CIS gas exports by 5.6% to 101.2 bcm

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ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 29 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom raised its natural gas exports to non-CIS countries by 5.7% on the year to 101.2 billion cubic meters in January–June, CEO Alexei Miller said on Friday during an annual general meeting of the company’s shareholders quoting preliminary data.

“The first results of 2018 show that growth of Gazprom’s supplies to the European countries has continued. Preliminary data showed that we delivered 101.2 billion cubic meters there in the first half of 2018. This is a 5.7%, or a 5.5 billion cubic meter increase as compared with the same period of the record year of 2017,” he said.

The company’s gas exports to non-CIS countries grew 8.4% on the year to a record of 194.4 billion cubic meters in 2017.

Miller also said that the share of Gazprom at the European gas market reached 34.2% in 2017, with the U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) covering only 0.5% of the region’s consumption. Only less than 2 million tonnes of the U.S. LNG was exported to the countries that mainly don’t buy Russian gas, he said, adding that exports of U.S. LNG are limited by the high cost of its production and transportation.

This year, Gazprom may set another historic record by selling almost 200 billion cubic meters if the current export trend remains.

He also said that the company plans to export more than 1 trillion cubic meters of gas to China over the next 30 years. “Russian gas will help the Chinese market to stabilize, to raise its liquidity, and to prevent periods of deficit like we saw in 2017,” he said.

Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said that Gazprom’s non-CIS gas exports may grow even above 200 billion cubic meters this year. “Speaking of the mid- and long-term, Gazprom has a good potential to raise exports even above all the figures due to the factors that I mentioned, including higher demand and a slump of production (in Europe),” he said.

Gazprom also planned to produce 475.9 billion cubic meters of gas in 2018. But Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov said that the company has overshot the production plan by 15 billion cubic meters as of today. “Our plans will be adjusted higher basing on our operating results for the first half of the year,” he said.

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