Gazprom’s gas exports, excluding former Soviet bloc countries, fell 45.5% in 2022, according to results released on Monday, after a year marked by a sharp drop in supplies to Europe, after Western sanctions on the Offensive in Ukraine.
In a statement, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the group exported 100.9 billion cubic meters of gas to countries “far abroad” in 2022, a term that doesn’t include the former Soviet republics.
In 2021, Gazprom had exported 185.1 billion cubic meters to the same countries.
Following Western economic sanctions against Russia in response to its military intervention in Ukraine, Moscow has sharply reduced its hydrocarbon exports to the EU.
In early December, the European Union, the G7 countries and Australia also agreed to cap Russian oil exports at $60 a barrel, hoping to deprive Moscow of significant revenue.
In response, Russia announced that from February 1 it would ban the sale of its oil to countries using its oil cap.
To make up for the losses, Moscow is looking to increase gas supplies to China’s energy-intensive economy and has accelerated that move.
At the end of December, Vladimir Putin launched the exploitation of a huge deposit in Siberia, which should allow exports to China to increase. Russia is also planning to build the Siberian Force 2 gas pipeline to supply Beijing via Mongolia from 2024.
Therefore, on Monday, the CEO of Gazprom noted that “prospects for an increase in gas consumption in the world are mainly associated with Asia, and especially with China.” Mr Miller said that deliveries to Beijing in 2022 “at China’s request” exceeded the amounts envisaged in the contracts.
In addition to the Force 1 Siberian gas pipeline, Gazprom plans to increase supplies of Russian gas to China from the Far East and through the future Force 2 Siberian gas pipeline.