Gazprom wins from cold March and LNG deficit in Europe

The cold weather in March in Europe has led to the overloading of the channels of the Russian gas exports to the far abroad countries and allowed Gazprom to pay back the loss of the exports volumes in this direction and the LNG deficit in the European markets. The LNG deficit in the European markets also influenced on the growth of the demand. But the annual volume of Gazprom’s total exports will mainly depend on the volume of the Russian gas purchased by the Ukraine which is trying to redirect its imports to the reverse supplies from Europe.

Gazprom’s gas supplies to Europe might rise 6.5% to 41.7 bln cubic m on the results of Q1 due to the cold weather, in March – by almost 30%. The growth is expected despite of the fall in Jan-Feb when the monopoly’s exports to Europe dell 5% and the total exports –by 8% to 34 bln cubic m. But the cold weather in March allowed Gazprom to reach the peak rates of the annual gas supply to Europe, yesterday they made up 520 mln cubic m. The company says that due to the increase of applications for gas, the exports gas transportation channels are overloaded. A source of Kommersant in Gazprom says the monopoly’s supplies to the far abroad countries have already exceeded the rates of Q1 2012 when about 39 bln cubic m were exported. That means in March Gazprom may supply by almost twice more gas to Europe than in Jan-Feb.