Gas production and supplies: results for eight months

According to preliminary data, Gazprom produced 288.1 billion cubic meters of gas in January-August 2022. This is a decrease of 14.6 per cent (or 49.1 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 2.9 per cent (or 4.7 billion cubic meters) over said period of 2022.

Gas exports to the countries beyond the FSU amounted to 82.2 billion cubic meters, which is 37.4 per cent (or 49.1 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 40 billion cubic meters in the first eight months of this year against the same period of 2021. The 27 countries of the European Union account for 73 per cent, or 29 billion cubic meters, of the reduction in global demand.

Gas consumption went down in the United Kingdom as well, dropping by about 5 billion cubic meters in the said period. Therefore, the EU and the UK account for a total of 85 per cent of the reduction in global gas demand.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas reserves contained in Europe's underground gas storage facilities were replenished by 54.2 billion cubic meters as of August 30. Companies will have to inject another 18.2 billion cubic meters of gas into the UGS facilities to get them to the levels observed at the start of the 2019–2020 withdrawal period.

Nevertheless, even getting the UGS facilities of major European countries to almost maximum levels of reserves would not guarantee a reliable performance in the upcoming autumn/winter period.

For instance, Germany's gas consumption in the preceding autumn/winter period (from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022) totaled 57 billion cubic meters, i.e. 9.5 billion cubic meters per month on average. Germany's UGS facilities are currently 84 per cent full, and their working gas inventories amount to 18.3 billion cubic meters. This means that the amounts of gas currently contained in Germany's storages are comparable to the average volume that is consumed within two (out of six) months of the autumn/winter period.

Also notable is the level of reserves observed at Ukraine's UGS facilities, which as of August 30 contained 13.1 billion cubic meters of gas out of the 19 billion required for the winter. Ukraine's representatives admit that filling up the storages is possible only in theory rather than in practice.