Russian pipe gas flow to Europe hits new low in Jan
Russian pipeline gas deliveries to Europe dropped nearly 30% in January compared with the level in December to an all-time monthly low, Reuters reported on January 30 citing its own calculations.
Europe has enjoyed unusually warm weather this winter, although there are forecasts that the weather will become colder than previously expected next week. The front-month TTF contract was trading at €58.2\MWh ($675/'000 m3) as of 11:40 GMT, up 1.5% from the previous session but still lower than it has been since December 2021.
Reuters based its calculations on gas flow via Ukraine and the TurkStream pipelines – the only routes still used to pump Russian gas to Europe. Nord Stream 1 has been rendered inoperable as a result of suspected sabotage in September, while sanctions and counter-sanctions imposed by Russia and Poland have made it no longer possible to deliver gas westward via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
Gazprom has not disclosed its own export and production statistics since the start of the year. Its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped to a post-Soviet low of 100.9bn m3 in 2022, down 45% year/year.
Russia has sought to offset supply losses in Europe with expanded deliveries to Asia. Deliveries via its Power of Siberia pipeline to China increased 50% in 2022 to 15.5bn m3. The pipeline is expected to flow at its full 38bn m3/year capacity by the mid-2020s, and Moscow and Beijing are in talks on developing two other routes for Russian gas deliveries.