Gazprom’s pipeline natural gas exports to Europe decreased by 55.6% in 2023, following Russia’s decision to cut off supplies to several EU countries and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea at the end of 2022, as reported by oilprice.com.
Russia’s daily gas volumes via pipeline to Europe dropped to 77.6 million cubic meters in 2023 from 174.8 million cubic meters in 2022, according to estimates from Reuters based on data from European gas transmission group Entsog and Gazprom’s daily reports on transit via Ukraine. Gazprom has ceased publishing data on its natural gas exports to Europe via pipeline since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom has reported a significant decrease in its net profit for the first half of 2023 as deliveries to Europe declined compared to the same period in 2022 when Russia was still supplying pipeline gas to its European customers.
The major decrease in Gazprom’s gas deliveries to key customers was a result of the halt of Russian pipeline gas exports to nearly all European countries. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Russia cut off supply to Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland. Then, Gazprom started reducing supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany in June 2022, citing an inability to service gas turbine maintenance outside Russia due to Western sanctions against Moscow. This was followed by the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines at the end of September 2022, which effectively closed all pipeline gas routes from Russia to Germany.
Prior to the war in Ukraine, Russia supplied approximately one-third of all the gas to Europe. China has become a priority destination for Gazprom after the rift with Europe. Last year, Gazprom’s chief executive Alexey Miller stated that Russia could soon supply China with volumes of gas comparable to those sent to Western Europe before the invasion of Ukraine. However, analysts are skeptical that Russia could boost volumes to China to such levels for at least another seven years.
