MOSCOW, Dec. 11 (UPI) — Full-year Russian natural gas production could be off by about 2 percent because of what the government said was expectations of lower consumption.
Russian Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said gas production for full-year 2015 could be lower than last year by about 2 percent, or around 423 billion cubic feet.
“Unfortunately, we expect some decline in gas production again due to the volume of consumption,” he was quoted by Russian news agency Itar-TASS as saying.
Russia holds the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, accounting for about a quarter of the world total of proven reserves. The gas sector is controlled almost exclusively by state-run energy company Gazprom, which faces anti-trust pressure from European economies given its control of both reserves and export arteries.
Lower energy prices, meanwhile, are hurting exporting nations like Russia. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin told members of the Federal Assembly the current economic situation was complicated but “not critical.”
“You can’t call it stagnation,” Molodtsov said. “You may only speak about the positive effect of energy efficiency but one should acknowledge that there is a problem, which should be resolved in 2016.”
Igor Artemyev, the head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service, in October suggested a breakup of Gazprom in an effort to address leverage concerns. Molodstov said there have been no concrete discussion on dividing Gazprom into production and transit entities, “but there should be such an option.”
Total natural gas sales for Gazprom increased 1 percent for the first half of the year, with much of the increase driven by sales to Europe.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.