Gazprom says U.S. LNG is not a competitor in European market

Russian gas conglomerate Gazprom sees no threat from U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies coming to the European market.

Gazprom, that generates more than a half of its revenue in Europe, said in a statement on Tuesday that in the European market “U.S. LNG was losing” against the company’s pipeline gas deliveries.

This was noted during a meeting of Gazprom’s board of directors which discussed prospects of the shale gas and LNG sectors around the world, as well as the start of LNG deliveries from the U.S. East Coast, the company said.

“Based on current estimates and projections, Latin America may become one of the main markets for U.S. LNG in the medium and long term. In fact, most of U.S. LNG was supplied to Latin America between March and September 2016,” the statement reads.

To remind, U.S. LNG export player Cheniere started exporting LNG in February from it Sabine Pass liquefaction plant in Lousiana, the first of it kind to send U.S. shale gas overseas. Since then, three U.S. LNG cargoes were delivered to European shores, including one to Turkey.

Gazprom operates Russia’s only LNG plant, built within the Sakhalin II project, which currently has an annual production capacity of 9.6 million mt. The agreement to add a third liquefaction train to the LNG plant at Prigorodnoye was signed in June last year.

State-owned energy giant is also planning to build the Baltic LNG project near the seaport of Ust-Luga.

During the meeting of Gazprom’s board, it was also stressed that “increasing the LNG share in Gazprom’s portfolio with the purpose of expanding sales geography and boosting gas exports was among the company’s priorities,” the company added.

LNG World News Staff