Gazprom manages to compete with LNG

Despite the surplus of liquefied gas on the market, Gazprom is successfully competing with it in Europe, it follows from the Kommersant’s calculations. By results of January-May, LNG displaces Russian gas in Lithuania only, while in the portfolios of major customers in Western Europe Gazprom retains or even increases its share. Analysts say the low oil prices made the Russian gas very competitive, but the oil price increase could adversely affect the process.

Russian gas at least is not losing the competition with LNG on the European market, it follows from the calculations of the Kommersant by results of the first five months of the year. In Europe, seven countries directly import as LNG, as the Russian pipeline gas: Britain, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Poland and Lithuania. As follows from the calculations of the Kommersant, Gazprom is clearly losing to LNG only on the Lithuanian market – the supplies grew 3.3 times there, while the supply of Russian gas to Lithuania decreased by 33%. In all other cases Gazprom either increases the supply in parallel with LNG, or displaces LNG from the balance - as in the Netherlands, Greece and, to a lesser extent, in Italy.