According to preliminary data, Gazprom produced 211.4 billion cubic meters of gas in January-May 2022. This is a decrease of 4.8 per cent (or 10.6 billion cubic meters) versus the same period of last year.
The Company's domestic supplies from the gas transmission system were commensurate with those in the same period of last year. At the same time, they showed a 17.7 per cent increase in May versus last year.
May 2022 was one of the coldest in the entire history of observation as far as the European part of Russia is concerned. As a result, daily gas supplies to Russian consumers via the Unified Gas Supply System broke ten-year records as many as 22 times. Most of the records were achieved in the second half of May, with an all-time daily record for this month surpassed three times in a row from May 3 to 5.
Gas exports to the countries beyond the FSU amounted to 61 billion cubic meters, which is 27.6 per cent (or 23.2 billion cubic meters) lower than the figure for the same period of 2021. Gazprom delivers gas in compliance with confirmed requests.
Gas exports to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline keep growing within the framework of the long-term bilateral contract between Gazprom and CNPC.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas reserves contained in Europe's underground gas storage facilities were replenished by 20.4 billion cubic meters as of May 30. Companies will have to subsequently inject more than 42 billion cubic meters of gas into the UGS facilities to get them 90 per cent full and 52 billion cubic meters to get them to the levels observed at the start of the 2019–2020 withdrawal period.
As reported in the media, the German regulator considers the situation with the current amount of inventories in Germany's UGS facilities, which are among Europe's biggest, to be “not good enough.” Reaching the target level of 90 per cent would give Germany a “safety cushion” for two and a half months in a normal winter. It should be noted, however, that the withdrawal season lasts much longer in Europe, taking five to six months.
