Gazprom sets export records four consecutive days as Europe hit by cold snap
MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - A bitter cold snap in Europe is helping Gazprom set export records daily.
The Russian gas giant exported 655.2 million cubic meters of gas to countries outside the CIS on Saturday, February 24, setting a record for the fourth consecutive day.
Gazprom said that the past week has already become one for the record books for the company. "On February 24, the company again, for the fourth time in the past four days, improved the absolute maximum daily amount of gas exports to the far abroad. The new all-time record is 655.2 mcm. The growth compared to February 23, when the previous peak daily figure was achieved, was 2.4 mcm," the company said.
"Furthermore, the new record was set on Saturday, a weekend day when gas consumption by foreign buyers, as a rule, decreases to the minimum figures of the week," Gazprom said.
The current late cold snap in Europe, caused by a blast of very cold air from Siberia that the European media have dubbed the Beast from the East, is pushing up gas consumption and prices on spot markets. At the Baumgarten gas hub in Austria on Monday contracts were being traded at $360 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from about $230 at the beginning of the month.