Russian gas output, exports plunge in 2022 on lost European market share
Russian gas production dipped 11.7% last year to 673.8bn m3, while exports slumped by 25.1% to 184.4bn m3, deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on February 13.
Novak cited European countries' refusal to buy Russian gas and the sabotage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in late September. A Kremlin decree issued last spring demanded that European buyers pay for Russian gas in rubles rather than the currencies stipulated in supply contracts. When a number buyers refused, they had their supply cut off.
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Moscow has made fresh allegations this month that the US were responsible for the blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on September 26, after the release of an article by veteran US journalist Seymour Hersh claimed that the US navy, at the behest of Joe Biden, placed timed explosives on the pipelines that were then remotely detonated.
Washington has described the report as "false and complete fiction." Hersh bases his claims on information from one anonymous source.
Novatek noted that despite falling production and exports, Russia continued to launch new gas fields and increase its LNG production, which rose by 7.9% in 2022 to 45.7bn m3. He also noted that supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline had increased by 48% to a record 15.4bn m3.
There are 18 LNG projects planned in Russia, Novak said, adding that the government had set aside 1bn rubles ($14mn) for developing domestic gas liquefaction technologies.