Page 119 - RusRPTFeb23

modular trains ramp up starting in 2024. The other nine trains could enter service sometime in 2025.
Seaborne LNG deliveries to European destinations, including Turkey, eased 1% week on week to 3.8bcm in the last week of December but is on track for a record monthly high, Kpler ship tracking data showed on December 27. Around 50 vessels, carrying almost 4.7bcm, were in transit or waiting to discharge at European ports as the year came to an end, although the final destinations and volumes could change, the Kpler data showed. More than 16.3bcm were imported in December, or 4.2bcm per week, almost 11% higher than the same period in November. Europe’s LNG supply in December is set to exceed 19bcm, smashing the previous record of 16.1bcm seen in November, as the region ramps up its replacement of Russian pipeline supply that dwindled after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The volume of LNG floating off European shores tumbled to its lowest since August in December, with 0.35bcm floating in four vessels that have waited for at least five days, according to Kpler data.
Competition from Asia is increasing, with prices for front-month delivery of LNG at a premium to benchmark gas prices on the Dutch TTF hub, which have tumbled amid mild weather in Europe. The Japan/Korea Marker for February delivery settled on December 27 at $28.12/MMbtu, compared with the equivalent contract on the TTF of $26.73/MMbtu. However, European prices offer a premium on Asian ones until the end of 2023.
Meanwhile, the second biggest LNG export terminal in the US, Freeport (20bcm/year), delayed its restart by another month to mid-January at the earliest, operator Freeport LNG said at the end of December.
European LNG storage levels jumped in the last week of the year and were at 72% of capacity by New Year’s Eve, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.
Russian gas exports to countries outside a group of former Soviet republics plunged by 45.5% in 2022, figures from gas giant Gazprom showed December 2. Gazprom said in a statement that exports outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) totaled 100.9bn cubic metres compared to 185.1bn in 2021. Europe was previously Gazprom's main export market but supplies have been drastically reduced because of sanctions following Russia's offensive in Ukraine in 2022. Gazprom head Alexei Miller said the company had been steadily increasing supplies to China during the year but did not give details on the quantities.
119 RUSSIA Country Report February 2023 www.intellinews.com