Russian watchdog asks Gazprom to expand domestic gas sales
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) recommended on September 27 that state gas supplier Gazprom expand sales of gas on the domestic exchange, warning of a 1.1bn m3 shortfall in supply in August.
The recommendation comes at a time when the European gas market is in the grip of a severe supply squeeze, as a result of delivery constraints and a strong rebound in demand in recent months. Gazprom's own production capacity has been capped since a fire broke out at its processing facilities in Urengoy last month.
The FAS said that Gazprom had not been selling gas on the domestic exchange since August 9. It said the company's sales on the exchange rose last year to 12.1bn m3 from 11bn m3 in 2019. But they came to only 3.6bn m3 in the first eight months of this year.
Gazprom's overall domestic gas sales came to 133.4bn m3 in the first half of this year, up from 117.6bn m3 in the corresponding period of 2019.