Russia’s natural gas production declined 14.9% year over year in the first half of the year, according to data released by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) on Wednesday.
The country’s gas output stood at 267 billion cubic meters during the January-June period this year, but for the whole year of 2022, it totaled 673.8 billion cubic meters.
The gas output for June decreased both monthly and annually, dropping 12.5% month over month and 11.9% annually to 34.6 billion cubic meters.
Between January and June this year, liquefied natural gas (LNG) output amounted to 16 million tons, recording a 4.5% decrease compared to the same period last year.
Last month, Russia’s LNG output totaled 2.3 million tons, representing a 20.9% contraction from the previous month and an 8.7% decline from June 2022.
Russia’s natural gas sector incurred a heavy blow with sanctions after the start of its war with Ukraine in February 2022. While several European countries stopped gas imports from Russia, others drastically curtailed them.
Russia is trying to compensate for its losses in the European natural gas market by expanding gas shipments to the Asian market.
