Production of natural gas increased by 16% year on year to 52 billion cubic metres (bcm) in July, the Kommersant daily reported on Wednesday citing unnamed sources, thanks to an output boost by state-owned energy giant Gazprom GAZP.MM.

For the first seven months of the year, Russia’s gas production was up 9.2% to 409.36 bcm, the report said, adding that output from “other producers” – a category mostly related to Gazprom – rose by 14.3% to 262 bcm.

The increases have been driven by extremely high summer temperatures that raised demand for gas-generated electric power for air conditioning, the newspaper reported.

It also said that gas production at the first line Arctic LNG 2 project, which has been placed under Western sanctions, rose in July to 47.77 million cubic metres (mcm) from 34.23 mcm in June.

The U.S. Department of State said on Friday that a tanker named Pioneer loaded the first LNG cargo from the Arctic LNG 2 plant in early August.

Another tanker, Asya Energy, was captured by commercial satellite imagery loading LNG from the Utrenneye terminal at the Arctic LNG 2 facility over Aug. 9-11, the department added.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by David Goodman)