Russia's Gazprom raised its exports by 8.1 percent annually to a record high of 193.9 billion cubic meters in 2017, the chairman of Gazprom's management committee, Alexey Miller, said on Wednesday.
In a speech at the end of December 2017, Miller said that "Last year, we set an absolute record for gas exports with 179.3 billion cubic meters. We will beat that amount by the year's end, with over 190 billion cubic meters of gas delivered to consumers. I would like to note that this year will see several countries at once set new records for Russian gas imports. I am speaking first and foremost about our largest consumers, Germany and Turkey."
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Miller said that Gazprom's production jumped by 12.4 percent on the year in 2017, to 471 billion cubic meters-the highest growth for the company on record.
According to Miller, the second consecutive year of record high exports shows on the one hand the growing demand for Russian gas in European countries, and on the other hand-the reliability of supplies.
Exports to northwest and central Europe jumped last year, Miller said, noting that deliveries to Gazprom's biggest market Germany increased by 7.1 percent from the previous record-high exports in 2016.
Gazprom's deliveries to Austria, the Netherlands, and Denmark also set records, the head of the Russian state gas giant said.
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The figures announced by Miller today suggest that Russia is continuing to increase its gas grip over Europe, despite efforts by the European Union (EU) and some of its members to diversify gas supplies. Gazprom is proposing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to double the capacity of the existing line that runs from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. Several European countries oppose that project, but the key beneficiary-Germany-does not.
Gazprom is also building the TurkStream gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey across the Black Sea, with the first string of the pipeline intended for Turkish consumers, and the second string planned to deliver gas to southern and southeast Europe.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More