Russia's Gazprom boosts gas exports to Europe after slump in 2022-23

Gazprom boosts gas exports to Europe (Getty Images)

In June 2024, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom expanded its average daily natural gas supplies to Europe by almost 23% compared to last year. Sales increased after the lows of 2023, reports Reuters.

Calculations based on data from the European gas transmission group Entsog and Gazprom's daily reports on gas transit through Ukraine showed that average daily pipeline exports were 81.8 million cubic meters compared to 66.8 million cubic meters in June 2023.

Gazprom's total natural gas exports to Europe this year amounted to about 15.5 billion cubic meters.

Europe was once Russia's main export market but now buys much less Russian gas after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Instead, Gazprom has increased gas sales to China, pushing its pipeline gas imports from Russia to 22.7 bcm last year, almost 1.5 times the 15.4 bcm delivered in 2022.

According to Gazprom and Reuters calculations, in 2022, Russia supplied a total of about 63.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via various routes. Last year, the volume decreased by another 55.6%, to 28.3 billion cubic meters.

At its peak in 2018-2019, the annual gas flow to the region reached 175 to 180 billion cubic meters.

Gazprom reduced gas production in 2023 to 355 billion cubic meters compared to 514 billion cubic meters in 2021. In 2023, Gazprom made a net loss of $7 billion, the first time since 1999.