Russia’s Gazprom said on Monday that the group’s gas output increased 16% year on year to 208.14 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first six months of 2024, continuing its recovery from last year’s slump to record lows.

The production data includes supply from its oil arm, Gazprom Neft.

Gazprom said it has benefited from raising its share in Sakhalin Energy, which operates the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) development, to 77.5% from a little more than 50% after Shell quit the project in 2022 after the start of the military conflict in Ukraine.

Natural gas exports to China rose by 43% for the period, Gazprom said, having previously indicated that its gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline are set to hit its annual target in December.

Gazprom’s natural gas output dwindled by almost a third last year from 515 bcm in 2021 to its lowest since the company was set up in the dying days of the Soviet Union in 1989.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Maxim Rodionov and Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Goodman)