Russian gas giant Gazprom said Thursday its LNG sales doubled last year as it continued to expand into new markets.
Large-scale LNG sales from Gazprom’s trading portfolio totaled 7.44 million tonnes or 10.92 bcm, Gazprom said in its financial report. This compares to 3.78 million tonnes or 5.04 bcm in 2019.
Moreover, Gazprom said the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 49 percent of the 2020 LNG sales, followed by Europe with 37 percent.
Country-wise, India was the largest buyer of Gazprom’s LNG last year, importing a total of 1.84 million tonnes, the state-owned firm said.
Also, the geography of LNG shipments has expanded “significantly” and included 14 countries, out of which five of them received Gazprom’s LNG for the first time. These countries include Belgium, France, Greece, the Netherlands, and Singapore, according to Gazprom.
Gazprom said its share in the large-scale LNG market reached about 2 percent of the total
global supply last year.
To remind, the Gazprom-operated Sakhalin plant also shipped record 11.6 million tonnes of LNG last year despite issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Profit dips
Gazprom reported an 89 percent drop in 2020 net profit to 135.3 billion roubles ($1.82 billion) on lower prices and sales but also a rise in costs including a foreign exchange-related loss.
The company’s total sales dropped 18 percent to 6.3 trillion roubles from 7.7 trillion in 2019.
Net gas sales declined 20 percent to 3.04 trillion roubles on lower volumes to Europe.
Gas sales to Europe and Turkey, which account for most of Gazprom’s profits, fell by 27 percent to 1.8 trillion roubles.