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Gazprom sees lower Q1 Europe consumer gas prices

22 November 2011 09:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Russia’s pipeline gas export monopoly Gazprom expects a slight fall in prices paid by European consumers in the first quarter of 2012, its chief executive officer said on Monday, Reuters reported.

"At the beginning of next year’s first quarter we will have a small decrease of gas prices," Alexei Miller told reporters. He declined to say by how much he saw them falling.

European consumers were paying an average of $446 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas in November.

Total Russian exports to Europe are forecast at 152 billion cubic metres this year.

"The level of export of Gazprom gas to European markets in 2012 will be higher than this year," Miller said, adding that the opening this month of the new Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany would play a part.

"It will be influenced by the start of operations of the Nord Stream," he said. As of November, Russia started sending its gas -- at a pace of 27.5 billion metres a year -- through the North Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany.

Earlier this month a senior Gazprom official said the company forecast an increase in European gas sales by 8 percent next year to 164 billion cubic metres.

Miller spoke on a visit to Serbia where Gazprom and Serbian gas monopoly Srbijagas launched an underground gas storage, as well as a new command room at the Pancevo oil refinery, in which its oil arm Gazprom Neft holds a majority stake.

Serbia, which imports almost all of its annual gas needs from Russia through a single pipeline coming across Hungary via Ukraine, is looking to broaden its supply routes.

The effort includes participating in the South Stream pipeline project through a joint venture with Gazprom.

Serbia started work on the underground gas storage facility in 2009 with an active capacity of 450 million cubic metres and maximum capacity to extract 5 million cubic metres of gas per day.

The total investment into the 400-km Serbian portion of South Stream is estimated at 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion), Srbijagas General Manager Dusan Bajatovic said.

In 2010 Srbijagas and Gazprom agreed to set up the joint venture, in which Gazprom holds a 51 percent stake, to manage the storage.

The deal is part of wider energy pact between Serbia and Russia that included the sale of a majority stake in Serbia’s oil monopoly NIS to Gazprom Neft.