Russia Says Natural Gas Exports To EU Will Drop By 33% This Year

Russia’s natural gas exports to the European Union this year are expected to decline by 50 billion cubic meters (bcm)—or by one-third of last year’s volumes—Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.

«According to estimates currently in the Ministry of Energy, exports will decrease by about 50 billion cubic meters,» Novak said on the sidelines of an event in Moscow, as carried by Russian news agency Interfax.

To compare, last year, Russian gas exports to the EU totaled around 150 bcm, per Reuters estimates.

Russia has drastically cut gas supply to Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, with cuts to gas deliveries culminating (so far) in the shutdown of the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany. Russia said last week that the key gas export route to Germany wouldn’t reopen until Western sanctions impeding gas turbine repairs in the West are not lifted.

Europe, for its part, is looking to diversify gas imports away from Russia, and has managed to reduce its gas dependence on Putin materially.

«Last year, Russian gas accounted for 40% of our gas imports. Today it’s down to 9% pipeline gas,» European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the 2022 State of the Union speech on Wednesday.

Gazprom, Russia’s gas giant, said last week that since the beginning of this year, the EU had reduced its imports of Russian gas by 48%, while the EU plus the UK combined have reduced Russian gas imports by 49%.

Gazprom’s exports to countries outside the CIS have shrunk this year by more than 35% compared to last year’s period.

Still, the gas giant is set to rake in 85% higher revenues this year, to around $100 billion, as natural gas prices surged following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the significant cut to Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe, an analyst told the Financial Times last week.

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