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    Russian gas supply up 11% in Jan-May (update)

Summary

The country's biggest supplier Gazprom increased production by 16.2%, while exports also rose sharply year on year.

by: Joseph Murphy, William Powell

Posted in:

Natural Gas & LNG News, Corporate, Import/Export, News By Country, Russia

Russian gas supply up 11% in Jan-May (update)

(Updates with Jan-May export data)

Russian natural gas supply was up 11% year on year in January through May, state statistics show, against a backdrop of strong demand in Europe.

The country produced 325.25bn m3 of gas in the first five months of the year, data published by the energy ministry's CDU-TEK research unit states. Output in May came to 62.74bn m3, up 19.6% yr/yr.

Production by Russia's largest gas supplier Gazprom is not specified in CDU-TEK's data, but the company said separately it had extracted 221.9bn m3 of gas during the five months, marking an increase of 16.2% yr/yr. Novatek produced 32.38bn m3 of gas in January through May, including 6.3bn m3 last month, while Rosneft produced 17bn m3, including 3.64bn m3 in May.

Exports to Europe, Turkey rise

Gazprom exported 84.2bn m³ to countries beyond the former Soviet Union, 27.2%, or 18bn m³ more than in the same period of the previous year, it said June 1.

In the first five months of the year, exports to Turkey increased by 166.9% year on year; to Germany by 40%; to Italy by 18%; to France by 18.4%; to Poland by 19.8%; to Bulgaria by 47.8%; to Romania by 194.7%; to Serbia by 125.9%; and to Greece by 29.9%.

Despite the sharp rise, Gazprom  has not so far booked extra transit capacity through Ukraine: it can also deliver gas directly to Turkey and from there also reach the Balkans, using the Turk Stream line. Europe's need to replenish storage has pushed hub prices up for the rest of the injection season.