Russian Piped Gas Exports to Europe Falls 30% in January to New Lows

(Reuters) — Pipeline natural gas exports to Europe by Russian energy giant Gazprom have declined by almost 30% in January from December amid falling prices at the spot market, hitting a new monthly all-time low, Reuters calculations showed on Tuesday.

Russian commodity exports have become increasingly politicized over the past years amid wider political tensions and have been the main focus for Western sanctions since last February when Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine.

According to calculations, based on daily data of Russian gas exports via Ukraine and the TurkStream pipeline, Gazprom's gas exports to Europe fell in January to some 1.8 billion cubic meters (Bcm) from 2.5 Bcm in December.

Gazprom halted gas supplies last year via the Yamal-Europe pipeline which traverses Belarus, Poland and terminates in Germany, as well as through the undersea Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was blown up in September.

Nord Stream 1, with annual capacity of 55 Bcm, was already standing idle at the time of the blasts due to a dispute related to the onland equipment maintenance.

According to European gas transmission group Entsog and Gazprom's daily reports on its transit via Ukraine, Gazprom's average daily gas supplies to Europe have declined to 58.1 million cubic meters (MMcm) this month from 81.9 MMcm in December.

Gazprom has not disclosed its own statistics on exports and output since the start of the year. The company has not responded to a request for comment.

The company had said its gas exports outside ex-Soviet Union fell last year by 45% to 100.9 Bcm. This was a post-Soviet low.

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