Gas production decreasing amid decline of electricity generation

The Statistics Agency has published data on industrial production for January-July 2024.

It is noted that during the first 7 months of this year, the volume of gas production was 26.15 billion cubic meters, which decreased by 1.31 billion cubic meters or 4.8% compared to the same period last year.

Gas production indicators for January-July 2024:

• January – 3.99 billion cubic meters (4.31 billion cubic meters in the same period last year);
• February – 3.71 billion cubic meters (3.85 billion cubic meters);
• March – 3.89 billion cubic meters (4.16 billion cubic meters);
• April – 3.7 billion cubic meters (3.94 billion cubic meters);
• May – 3.52 billion cubic meters (3.6 billion cubic meters);
• June – 3.54 billion cubic meters (3.7 billion cubic meters);
• July – 3.78 billion cubic meters (3.9 billion cubic meters).

For information, in 2022, gas production decreased from 53.8 billion to 51.67 billion cubic meters, or by 4%, and in 2023, from 51.67 billion to 46.71 billion cubic meters, or by 9.6%.

The volume of imports is increasing against the background of decreasing gas production. In particular, $984 million worth of gas is purchased in January-June, which is almost 5 times more than in the corresponding period of 2023.

In turn, gas export for the entire period decreased by 5.6% or 323 million US dollars. However, gas sales have been increasing in recent months. In particular, gas worth 263 million dollars was exported in June-July alone.

In the first 7 months, coal production amounted to 3 million 483 thousand tons, which increased by 12.4% compared to the same period last year.

Also, during the reporting period, oil production decreased from 456,000 tons to 425,000 tons, while gas condensate production increased from 707,000 tons to 726,000 tons.

In January-July, electricity production decreased by 5.5% or 2.48 billion kWh compared to the same period last year. In particular, in 7 months of 2023, 45.29 billion kWh of electricity was produced, while this figure decreased to 42.80 billion kWh in the corresponding period of this year.

For information, in January-July, $81.6 million worth of electricity was purchased (2.4 percent increase) and $68.6 million worth of electricity was exported (45.3 percent increase).

During the reporting period, the production of diesel fuel decreased from 629.8 thousand tons to 619 thousand tons (-1.7%), while the production of gasoline increased from 784.1 thousand tons to 789.5 thousand tons (+0.7%).