Russian group PJSC Gazprom reported that its natural gas supplies to China reached a new all-time high on Sunday amid increased demand, Bloomberg reported, citing Agerpres.
Supply volumes requested by Chinese National Petroleum Corp. on the “Power of Siberia-1” gas pipeline last week once again exceeded the contractual obligations of “Gazprom”, the Russian group said. The addition to the gas supply contract with the Chinese company CNPC allowed Gazprom to increase exports from November.
The data shows the importance of China after Gazprom’s historic supplies to Western Europe collapsed last year, as European countries began to diversify their energy imports after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Last week, CNPC and Gazprom officials discussed possible gas supplies through the upcoming Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline through Mongolia. Russia expects to conclude a gas supply contract between Gazprom and CNPC through Power of Siberia 2 as soon as possible, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Novak said on Sunday, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Russia’s Energy Ministry recently estimated that gas exports to China will reach 22 billion cubic meters (bcm) this year and 30 billion cubic meters in 2024.
Gazprom’s profit was greatly affected by the drop in supplies to Europe
For nine months of this year, Gazprom’s net profit fell by 44% compared to the same period in 2022 – to 4.6 billion euros.
The Russian group is affected by the decision of the Europeans, Gazprom’s main clients abroad, to reduce their energy dependence on Moscow. The sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022 led to an almost complete cessation of Russian gas supplies to the European Union.
Since then, Gazprom has been trying to find new customers, but at the moment it does not have the necessary infrastructure to deliver natural gas through pipelines to Asia. At the same time, uncertainty about the Group, which is also under severe fiscal pressure without access to international financing, has also increased. And this is in the conditions when Gazprom is also to start a project to expand the domestic natural gas distribution network.
Gazprom is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and one of the largest contributors to the Russian budget.
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Source: Hot News
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