BLBG:Gazprom Keeps EU Gas Export Forecast Even As Crisis Hurts Demand
OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural-gas producer, is maintaining its outlook for exports to Europe in 2012, even as economic woes hurt demand.
“The economic crisis in the eurozone has considerably influenced demand for energy,” Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller told reporters today in Omsk, Siberia. “Demand for energy in the eurozone has fallen so far in 2012 compared with 2011.”
It is “too early” in the year to predict potential changes, Miller said. Europe remains Gazprom’s primary export market, he said. Gazprom has said shipments to Europe will probably remain little changed this year at about 150 billion cubic meters.
Gazprom, Russia’s gas export monopoly, reduced supplies to Europe by more than 12 percent in January through April, extending a first-quarter decline, two people with knowledge of the data said earlier this month. Prices for European customers jumped 19 percent to about $415 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
