Russia produces 636.7 bcm of gas in 2023, less than forecast due to warm Nov

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Natural gas production in Russia fell to 636.7 billion cubic meters in 2023 from 673.8 bcm in 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in an article in the Energy Policy journal.

This is the first official information about the amount of gas produced in the country for all of 2023. Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) data for December are expected to be published on January 31.

The updated social and economic development forecast for 2024-2026 presented last September forecast gas production in Russia at 642 bcm in 2023.

The main reason output fell short of the forecast was warm weather in November, when outdoor temperatures in the country were about 2 degrees Celsius higher than normal and what they were in November 2022, data from System Operator UES showed. As a result, gas production in November, according to Rosstat data, totaled 58.3 bcm, about the same as in the previous, warmer month of October, when the country produced 58.5 bcm (up by about 3% in daily terms).

"The level of gas production for the year amounted to 636.7 bcm, which is 5.5% less than the previous year," Novak said, added that gas production at offshore fields rose 10.9% to 34.5 bcm.

The macroeconomic forecast projects gas production in 2024 at 666.7 bcm in the baseline scenario and 644.7 bcm in the conservative scenario.

"The launch of new gas fields and infrastructure continued in 2023. The first billion cubic meters of gas was produced from Jurassic deposits of the Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye gas condensate field on the Yamal Peninsula, which is the base for the Yamal LNG plant [owned by Novatek , TotalEnergies and China's CNPC and SRF]. As part of the development of [Gazprom's ] Sakhalin gas production center, comprehensive testing of the final two production wells at the Kirinskoye field was successfully concluded in 2023," Novak said.