Page 114 - RusRPTFeb23

of gas deliveries through the Power of Siberia pipeline to China, the holding said on January 4. "Gazprom started 2023 with new historical records of daily gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. From January 1, the company reached a fundamentally new level of daily deliveries, stipulated by the contract for 2023. At the same time, already on January 1 and 3, Gazprom exceeded this level (by 0.45% on January 3)," the company said.
The price of gas in Europe fell by 48% in December 2022 versus the previous month to around $845 per 1,000 cubic metres, according to data provided by London’s ICE on January and February futures contracts and TASS’ calculations. The decrease was triggered by the abnormally warm weather in the region and a large amount of gas supplies in storage facilities. The price of gas futures reached around $1,558 per 1,000 cubic metres by the end of trading on November 30, whereas on December 30 trading ended with the price of $845, a 48% decrease month-on-month. The average price of gas in Europe was around $1,272 per 1,000 cubic metres in December, and $1,262 in November.
The EU consumption of natural gas has dropped by 20.1% in the period August-November 2022, compared with the average gas consumption for the same months (August-November) between 2017 and 2021.
The Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1369 on coordinated demand-reduction measures for gas, part of the REPowerEU plan to end EU dependence on Russian fossil fuels, set a reduction target of 15% for the period August 2022-March 2023 as compared to the average of the same period of the five previous consecutive years.
During August-November 2022, natural gas consumption dropped in most Member States. In 18 Member States, consumption dropped beyond the 15% target, in some, by a large margin (above 40%). Consumption fell the most in Finland (-52.7%), Latvia (-43.2%) and Lithuania (-41.6%).
Six Member States, while reducing their natural gas consumption, have not yet reached the 15% target. By contrast, natural gas consumption increased in Malta (+7.1%) and Slovakia (+2.6%).
This information comes from energy data published by Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union) and transmitted by the National Statistical Institutes of the Member States.
Looking at monthly data from January to November 2022, consumption has been consistently below the 2017-2021 average of the respective months of those years. Between January and July 2022, natural gas consumption in the EU varied between 1 938 petajoules (PJ) in January, seasonally a colder
114 RUSSIA Country Report February 2023 www.intellinews.com