Gas production and supplies: results for 10 months

According to preliminary data, Gazprom produced 344 billion cubic meters of gas from January through October 2022. This is a decrease of 18.6 per cent (or 78.8 billion cubic meters) versus the same period of last year.

The domestic demand for the Company's supplies from the gas transmission system went down by 5.6 per cent (or 11.1 billion cubic meters) over said period.

Gas exports to the countries beyond the FSU amounted to 91.2 billion cubic meters, which is 42.6 per cent (or 67.6 billion cubic meters) lower than the figure for the same period of 2021. Gazprom delivers gas in compliance with confirmed requests.

Gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline keep growing within the framework of the long-term bilateral contract between Gazprom and CNPC. The supplies are regularly in excess of the daily contractual volumes.

Reduction in gas consumption in the European Union became a key factor driving the decline in global gas demand. According to the first preliminary estimates and the available current data, global gas demand dropped by over 40 billion cubic meters in the ten months of 2022. Out of this amount, the 27 countries of the European Union account for about 85 per cent, or 36 billion cubic meters.

Gas consumption went down in the UK as well, falling by some 4 billion cubic meters over said period of 2022. This means that the EU and the UK taken together account for about 95 per cent in the decline observed in global gas demand.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas reserves contained in Europe's underground gas storage facilities were replenished by 68.6 billion cubic meters as of October 30. Nevertheless, even getting the UGS facilities of major European countries to maximum levels of reserves would not guarantee a reliable performance in the upcoming autumn/winter period. What is more, the load on Europe's UGS facilities is going to be significantly greater than in previous years due to the changes that have occurred in the logistics and the sources of gas supply on the European market. It should be highlighted that some countries have already started using the gas reserves contained in the storages.

Also notable is the level of reserves observed at Ukraine's UGS facilities, which as of October 30 contained 14.6 billion cubic meters of gas out of the 19 billion required to be in stock by winter. Ukraine's representatives admit that filling up the storages is possible only in theory rather than in practice.