Russian energy giant Gazprom gas exports to four SEE countries rose sharply in January-August 2021. The company ramped up its supplies to Romania (by 344%), Serbia (by 123.9%), Bulgaria (by 50.9%) and Greece (by 15.8%).
In total exports to Far Abroad countries (Europe plus Turkey minus the countries of the former Soviet Union) reached 131.3 bcm. The increase amounted to 19.4% year-on-year, or 21.3 bcm. Gazprom’s supplies are keeping close to the historic record of 133.3 bcm at the same period of 2018.
Gas deliveries to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline continue to rise as well. On August 26, daily deliveries broke the record for the fourth time this year, and exceeded Gazprom’s daily contract obligations by more than 5%.Gazprom is expected to supply around 10 Bcm of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline in 2021.
In January-August, according to the preliminary data, Gazprom produced 337.2 bcm, which is by 17.9%, or 51.2 bcm, more than in the previous year. Domestic supply increased by 10.9%, or 15.6 bcm.
Just a few weeks before the start of the heating season, European gas prices are at record highs and could scale new heights due to low gas storage levels, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Friday (Sept. 17).
Miller told an online conference that Europe’s gas in storage is currently 22.9 billion cubic metres (bcm) below normal levels.
All the experts are saying that Europe won’t be able to catch up with the lag in pumping (into storage). “Europe will enter the autumn/winter period with shortages in underground storage,” he said.
“Of course, the situation is having an impact on prices and we see that the prices in Europe have beaten all the possible records. It’s even possible that they will beat the records which they had already achieved.”
The European benchmark TTF day-ahead contract breached Eur70/MWh last week, according to S&P Global Platts price assessments. The price was last assessed on Sept. 17 at Eur65.45/MWh.
Gazprom is the owner of the Nord Stream 2 operating company and announced in early September that Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany had been completed. Running under the Baltic Sea, it will double Moscow’s gas export capacity to Europe.
The company said last month it could supply 5.6 Bcm of gas via the pipeline in 2021. Work on the 1,225km pipeline took five years, at a cost of $11bn.
Bundesnetzagentur the German gas regulator’s website, which was updated on Sept. 13, said that the four-month period to certify Nord Stream 2 started on Sept. 8.
