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in many OPEC member countries requires significantly higher prices, which is likely to continue to be reflected in the cartel's greater efforts to maintain production restrictions.
Russian gas transit across Ukraine fell by 38% in 2020 to 55.8bn cubic meters (bcm), a 30-year record low, head of the operator of the country's gas system Sergei Makogon said in an article for the Ekonomicheskaya Pravda newspaper on January 13 as cited by Prime.
"On the one hand, Gazprom paid for 65 bcm of capacity because Ukraine managed to force it to include a pump or pay norm in the contract. On the other hand, this is a record low in the last 30 years," Makogon said.
He said that the capacity of the system was loaded by less than 30%. The official added that Ukraine can lose 15 bcm of transit more due to the launch of TurkStream's second line.
Russian gas exports by pipeline to customers outside the former Soviet Union reached 179.3bn cubic metres (bcm) in 2020, Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom said January 9, down from 199.2bn cubic metres reported for 2019. The data includes exports to China of 4.1 bcm via the Power of Siberia pipeline, it said. The company also said its natural gas production reached 452.7 bcm in 2020, down from 500.3 bcm in reported for 2019, which became its highest since 2012.
Gazprom increased utilization of the TurkStream gas pipeline since its commissioning 2.2-fold, particularly for European consumers - 2.5-fold, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian gas producer Aleksei Miller told reporters on Friday. "Today marks one year since the grand ceremony of opening of the TurkStream offshore gas pipeline. It safely transports the Russian gas via the Black Sea for consumers in Turkey and as many as six European states: Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Gazprom has increased utilization of the gas pipeline since commissioning 2.2-fold, particularly for European consumers - 2.5-fold," he said. The TurkStream export gas pipeline runs along the bottom of the Black Sea from Russia to the coast of Turkey. Its throughput capacity is 31.5bn cubic meters of gas per year. The pipeline is aimed at supplying gas to Turkey and southern and southeastern European countries transiting Turkey.
Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom sent its European customers nearly a third less gas via Ukraine’s pipeline network in 2020 than it did a year earlier, the head of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine LLC (GTSOU) Serhiy Makogon said o January 6, as cited by Interfax Ukraine.
The reduction in gas volumes means that Gazprom has sent less gas than it is contractually obliged to send, but under the terms of a deal signed at the last
108 RUSSIA Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com
