Page 124 - RusRPTFeb21

January 2018-19, but 1% below January 2017. In any case, the 6.5 bcm rebound in Gazprom's gas exports in January should make a substantial contribution to the 1Q21 and full-year results, as it represents a full 3.6% of Gazprom's total exports last year (179 bcm).
Company Gazoprovod Soyuz Vostok was established in Mongolia to develop technical feasibility studies for the Sila Sibiri 2 gas pipeline project​, Russian gas giant​ ​Gazprom​ said in its Telegram channel on Friday. The pipeline can run from Russia across the territory of Mongolia to China. "The pipeline Soyuz Vostok will be continuation of Russian pipeline Sila Sibiri 2 on the territory of Mongolia, the export capacity can exceed the export capacity of Sia Sibiri by more than 30%," CEO Alexei Miller said as cited by the company.
​The Amur gas refinery of Russian gas giant​ ​Gazprom​ is 70% ready, ​and its first start-up facility and two technological lines will be launched in 2021, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Vladimir Putin at a meeting on Tuesday. The launch of the two debut production lines at the Amur gas refinery was scheduled for April 2021 and of the third line for December 2021. All the six planned lines now will be commissioned by December 2024, and the plant’s production capacity will amount to 38bn cubic meters of methane, 2mn tonnes of ethane, 1.7mn tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas, and 60mn cubic meters of helium. Miller also said that Gazprom’s gas extraction facilities top the current production volume of around 452bn cubic meters of gas by almost 100bn cubic meters annually. The company plans to build new gas processing and gas chemical plants both in Russia’s western and eastern parts to export the products both to the European and Asian customers, he added. Miller said that China’s demand for gas is higher that the supply volume envisaged by a 30-year contract with Gazprom, and that a feasibility study for the Mongolian part of the Sila Sibiri-2 gas pipeline that can deliver additional gas to China will be ready in January–March.
Gazprom​ continues to sell gas from its European underground storage facilities instead of making physical gas deliveries to Europe​, Kommersant reports. In addition, Gazprom has almost ceased making sales with near-term delivery through its electronic sales platform. Our View: These measures might be aimed at evening out European gas demand throughout the year and smoothing European price volatility. This could also help the company to even gas supplies via Ukraine during the summer period, given the relative rigidity of the ship-or-pay 40bcm transit contract with the country. So, overall we treat the news as neutral for the stock. We note that the utilisation of European underground storage facilities currently stands at 59%, in line with the multi-year seasonal average. The current TTF spot price is $255/kcm, up 2x y/y and roughly on par with the value on same date in 2019.
124 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ February 2021 www.intellinews.com