European Gas Markets, June 29, 2007

Russia's Gazprom forecasts record export revenues for 2007, according to Russian online newswire RBC. Export revenues would be even higher than last year's $37.2 billion (EUR 27.6 billion), according to deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev, cited by RBC. Last year's figure was already more than 40% higher year-on-year.

However, Mikhail Korchemkin of East European Gas Analysis observed that while Medvedev forecasts a record export revenue in 2007, to date both volumes and revenue are down year-on-year (in Q1-2007 Gazprom exported to Europe 34.7 billion cubic metres compared with 43.9 Gm3 in Q1-2006). Nevertheless, the new record is still possible, according to Korchemkin, though Gazprom would need to take away the export quota of Rosukrenergo. In 2005-2006, the Swiss broker was exporting to Europe 9 Gm3 a year, effectively reducing the export earnings of Gazprom.