Russia, China boosting gas consumption, Europe reducing it - Gazprom CEO

MOSCOW. August 31 (Interfax) - Russia and China are boosting gas consumption while Europe is reducing it, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on a conference call dedicated to Oil and Gas Industry Workers Day.

"Energy consumption is a key indicator of the state of an economy," he said.

"As for the Russian market, gas supplies to domestic consumers through Gazprom's gas transmission system exceeded last year's level in the first eight months," he said.

"We see that the Chinese gas market is growing. Gas imports by China have increased over eight months of this year. And Gazprom has provided more than half of the increase in these imports to the Chinese market," he said.

Miller said Gazprom was "systematically increasing daily productivity" along the Power of Siberia pipeline, the main outlet for the Russian supplies. "But the key thing is that we are creating new gas transportation routes. In particular, the Far East route, for which we signed a supply contract and an agreement last year. So Gazprom will increase gas supplies to the Chinese market, and we know that the Chinese market is extremely viable for our Gazprom gas," he said.

"Gas consumption in Europe has been falling for the second year in a row. It fell by 56 billion cubic meters of gas in 2022, and by 26 bcm for eight months of this year, compared to the same period in 2022. We have talked about the reasons for the crisis on Europe repeatedly," Miller said.

Regarding the commissioning of Eastern Gas Program facilities, Miller said infrastructure at the Chayanda field in the Yakutsk gas production center would be built in 2023. "We will ramp the field up to its design capacity by the end of next year, exactly according to plan," he said.

"We will launch the second complex gas treatment unit at the Kovykta field in the Irkutsk gas production center this year. As well as developing production capacity this year we are commissioning about 800 km of Power of Siberia gas pipeline loop-lines along the section from Chayanda to Blagoveshchensk. We are expanding the capacity of compressor stations on this section," Miller said.