Russia has pushed back by “several years” a plan to reach an annual liquefied natural gas output target of 100 million tonnes, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TV on Thursday, blaming the impact of western sanctions on its energy industry.
Russia's long-term plans to gain a fifth of the global LNG market by 2030-2035, from 8 per cent currently, have been challenged by sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine, including measures against the new Arctic LNG 2 plant.
A recently updated government strategy, which outlines Russia's long-term plans in energy sector, envisages the country producing 90-105 million tonnes of LNG by 2030 and 110-130 million tonnes by 2036.
“Our goal was to reach 100 million tonnes. It is clear that, due to sanctions-related restrictions, this will now be pushed back by several years,” Mr Novak told Rossiya-24 TV station, without elaborating.
Mr Novak also said that Russia's oil and gas condensate production this year is broadly unchanged from 2024, at about 516 million tonnes, or some 10.32 million barrels a day. That is an improvement on an outlook for 1 per cent decline, given by President Vladimir Putin in October.
Russia's LNG production rose by 5.4 per cent in 2024 to 34.7 million tonnes, less than the expected 35.2 million tonnes.
The EU plans to ban Russian LNG imports from January 1, 2027, while there is also fierce competition form the US, which is expanding sales in Europe, and from Qatar, which is dominating sales to Asia.
Postponements in the implementation of the Arctic LNG 2 project, which started production in December 2023 but was only able to deliver a first cargo to end-buyers in China this August, underscore Russia's struggle to significantly raise LNG output.
Murmansk LNG, which is scheduled to become Russia's largest LNG plant, with output of 20.4 million tonnes a year, also faces delays.
