FSUOGM: Russian gas pipe flow dips to record low in January

Russian pipeline gas flowing to Europe dipped to a record low in January, down 30% compared with supplies in December, while experts warn that there could be significant further downside risk to the country’s deliveries.

Europe has enjoyed unseasonably high temperatures in recent weeks, and with ample LNG supply and gas volumes in storage, this has resulted in prices dropping to their pre-Ukraine war levels, despite the steep drop in Russian deliveries. This has caused gas hub prices to slide to levels not seen since before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.

According to Reuters, citing its own calculations, Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe fell in January to some 1.8bn cubic metres versus 2.5 bcm in December via Ukraine and the TurkStream pipeline. These are the only routes still used for delivering Russian gas via pipeline to Europe. Gazprom cut supply via both the Yamal-Europe and Nord Stream 1 pipeline last year, and the latter was left inoperable last September as a result of suspected sabotage.

According to European gas transmission group Entsog and Gazprom’s daily reports on transit through Ukraine, the company’s average daily gas deliveries to Europe came to only 58.1mn cubic metres in January, compared with 81.9 mcm in December.

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