Russia's natural gas exports via the TurkStream pipeline to Europe reached a record high of more than 50 million cubic meters (mcm) per day last month after transit through Ukraine was shut, according to the recent preliminary calculations conducted by Reuters.
These calculations closely correlated to those of the Russian news agency Tass, which on Saturday reported that Russia increased gas exports to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline in January to a record high since its launch in 2020.
It cited the total monthly volume of 1.56 billion cubic meters (bcm), calling on data from the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators (ENTSOG).
Türkiye has remained the only route for Russian gas to Europe after a five-year transit deal between Moscow and Kyiv was not extended when it expired on Jan. 1.
The TurkStream gas pipeline, with a capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas, runs from Russia through the Black Sea to Türkiye and is designed to supply gas to Türkiye and the countries of southern and southeastern Europe.
Based on data from European gas transmission group Entsog, calculations showed that Russian gas exports via the TurkStream jumped last month by 26.8% year-over-year, rising to 50.6 mcm per day from 39.9 mcm in January 2024, Reuters said on Friday.
In total, Russian gas supplies to Europe via TurkStream have reached about 1.57 billion cubic metres in January, it said, up from 1.24 bcm in January last year and 1.54 bcm last December.
Russia supplied about 63.8 bcm of gas to Europe by various routes in 2022, as shown by Gazprom data and Reuters calculations. That collapsed by 55.6% to 28.3 bcm in 2023 but increased to about 32 bcm in 2024.
At their peak in 2018-2019, annual flows to Europe reached between 175 bcm and 180 bcm.
