Minsk, Belarus. March 22, 2019

Gazprom is planning to maintain its gas supply to Europe at the level of 200 billion cubic meters (BCM) of gas per year in 2019, A. Kruglov, Gazprom board deputy chairman, told reporters on March 22, 2019.

Gazprom reached volumes of export supplies above 200 BCM of gas per year for the first time in 2018 and now intends to at least maintain this level.

On February 26, 2019, on Investor Day in Hong Kong, Ye. Burmistrova, director of Gazprom Export, stated confidently that Gazprom could maintain exports to Europe at 200 BCM/year for a number of years to come. It is interesting that A. Kruglov assumed that gas exports to non-CIS countries could grow by about 20%, to more than 242 BCM/year by 2025, taking into account the achievement of the planned volumes of gas supplies to China at 38 BCM/year via the Power of Siberia-1 gas pipeline.

The key issue is the gas supply situation in 2019, as the new export gas pipelines Nord Stream 2, the Turk Stream, and Power of Siberia-1 are to be launched at the end of 2019. In this connection, reaching a level of more than 200 BCM/year in 2020 is not a problem, but one cannot be sure about Gazprom’s ability to reach this level in 2019, especially with the warm weather in Europe leading to a reduction in gas demand.

In the period from January 1 to March 15, 2019, Gazprom has reduced its gas supply to non-CIS countries by 8.2% when compared to the gas supply volumes for these 2.5 months in 2018, to 40.8 BCM.

In 2018, Gazprom increased gas exports to non-CIS countries by 3.8% compared with its 2017 exports, to 201.8 BCM. The company was planning to increase this to 204.5BCM/year (the maximum annual contract volume for all export contracts to non-CIS countries), but the export volumes were lower than expected. Gazprom increased its gas production by 5.7% in 2018 when compared to 2017, to 497.6 BCM.

In 2019, the Russian gas giant is planning to produce 495.1 BCM of gas, which is a 0.5% decrease from 2018. This is traditional for Gazprom, which usually adheres to a conservative and self-restrained approach when making production forecasts at the beginning of each year. During the year, the forecast for production volumes may be adjusted depending on the market situation.