Gazprom Expects Gas Sales Revenue to Beat Forecast This Year

Gazprom PJSC said revenue from natural-gas sales is expected to exceed its own forecasts in 2024, providing a boost for the Russian energy giant after last year’s annual loss.

“Proceeds from gas sales will amount to 4.6 trillion rubles ($45.8 billion), which is 155 billion rubles more than envisioned in the original financial plan,” Deputy Chief Executive Officer Famil Sadygov said in a Telegram statement on Tuesday. That would also top last year’s revenues from gas sales.

The state-controlled company reported its first annual loss since 1999 last year due to falling shipments to Europe amid declining fuel prices and the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. But so far this year Russia’s gas exports to the region have risen by more than 13 percent on the same period in 2023 to 29.7 billion cubic meters, according to Bloomberg calculations. 

Around half of the gas to Europe passes through Ukraine, though Gazprom’s five-year transit agreement expires at the end of this month. Last week the leaders of Russia and Ukraine ruled out the renewal of the deal.

Gazprom also expanded its domestic gas pipeline network and acquired Shell Plc’s former stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas joint venture in Russia’s Far East, which already helped to boost net income in the first half of this year.

For the first time, Gazprom’s supplies to China this year are set to exceed pipeline flows to Europe, formerly its single biggest market. 

Russia supplied almost 28.5 billion cubic meters of gas to China via the Power of Siberia link between January and November, a 40 percent jump year-on-year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on customs data from the Asian nation and price estimates from the Russian Economy Ministry.