Gazprom holds back on spot sales this week
Russia's state gas supplier Gazprom again held off from offering any extra gas on the spot market on December 6, despite Europe struggling with a significant energy crunch.
The company's export arm Gazprom Export said it had no plans for the auction of spot gas sales on its Electronic Sales Platform this week. The last auctions took place on the platform in late October, for deliveries in the third quarter of 2022 and in 2023.
While fulfilling its contractual supply obligations, Gazprom has faced criticism for not sending enough additional gas spot volumes to Europe to help bring down record high prices and reduce the risk of shortages this winter. Data published by Russia's state gas supplier Gazprom on December 1 confirms that the company's exports to Europe slumped to a record low in November, despite past promises that it would ramp up supplies.
Gazprom reported on December 6 that its exports to the "Far Abroad," meaning countries outside the former Soviet Union, came to 171.5bn m3 in January through November of this year, up 6.6% year on year. In contrast, exports were up 10.4% in 158.2bn m3 in January through October. From these numbers it can be calculated that November volumes came to 13.3bn m3 last month, marking a record monthly low for 2021 and down 24% from 17.6bn m3 in November of last year.