Gazprom reports 3% slump in production in Q1, sees 8% drop in April
MOSCOW. May 17 (Interfax) - Gazprom reduced gas production by 3% to 112.856 billion cubic meters in the first quarter of 2016 from 116.310 bcm in the same period a year earlier, the Russian gas giant said in its quarterly report.
With production falling, Gazprom is trying to conceal its production statistics as much as possible. In the monthly report issued by the Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex (CDU TEK), production by the world's biggest gas company is concealed in the basket of "other producers." The company itself now discloses production in its quarterly report.
Gazprom's production did not grow despite a 28% jump in exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union and this being a leap year, which could have added an extra percentage point.
Industry sources told Interfax that Gazprom's production continued to fall in April, dropping 7.7% to 31.06 bcm. Production in the first four months of 2016 overall is therefore down by more than 6 bcm year-on-year.
Gazprom produced 418.5 bcm of gas in 2015, although the initial target was 485.36 bcm; this target was repeatedly revised downward, eventually to 414.1 bcm.
While in its report for the first quarter of 2015 Gazprom already provided revised annual production guidance, it did not do so in its latest report for the first quarter of 2016. The latest official production forecast for this year, given by deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov in an interview two weeks ago, is 452.45 bcm. However, the loss of the Ukrainian market and decline in shipments to the Russian market point only to a decline in production compared to 2015.
