Russia’s share of European gas market surges to almost 37%, dwarfing LNG imports

Russia’s state-run energy major Gazprom said its share of sales of natural gas in the European Union has increased to 36.7 percent last year, rising over two percent against 34.2 percent in 2017.

“In 2018, according to preliminary data, the share of gas supplies to the EU countries and Turkey has reached an all-time high and totaled 36.7 percent,” the director general of Gazprom Export Elena Burmistrova said at Gazprom’s Investor Day event, taking place in Singapore.

Burmistrova added that Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe last year amounted to record 201.8 billion cubic meters, and is expected to significantly grow by 2035 due to the increasing demand.

According to a member of Gazprom's management committee, Oleg Aksyutin, the company saw no threat to Gazprom’s business in the European market from global producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), including the US.

The company’s gas exports to Europe are reportedly three times more than the amount of LNG shipped to Europe by all global producers combined.

Though the share of LNG shipments have been growing, it still makes up only 13 percent of the entire gas market, according to Burmistrova. The executive added that prices for natural gas saw a significant surge.

“In 2018, in accordance with linked fuel prices, the average price of Gazprom gas increased by 24.6 percent to $245.5 for 1,000 cubic meters,” she said, stressing that in 2016 it stood at $167.

When it comes to China, one of the world’s biggest energy consumers, Gazprom is planning to become the country’s biggest supplier as soon as 2035, with the company’s share expected to reach 13 percent of Chinese overall consumption by the same year.

Gazprom’s annual exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline, which is currently 99 percent complete, are projected to reach 38 billion cubic meters by 2025.

The corporation pledged to invest 1.2 trillion rubles into new energy projects this year with 320 billion rubles set to be spent on the construction of the Amur Gas Processing Plant.

Gazprom expects gas production in Russia to increase by up to 20 percent by 2035 and reach 875 billion cubic meters a year. Last year, gas output in Russia reached 725 billion cubic meters.

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