Russian gas giant Gazprom reported on Monday record profits for the third quarter on the back of soaring natural gas prices in its key export market, Europe.
The Russian gas monopoly-which holds one-third of the gas supply to Europe and which some critics have slammed for keeping European gas prices too high by not delivering extra supply on top of its contractual obligations-reported record-high net profit, sales, and free cash flow for the third quarter, it said on Monday.
Gazprom expects an even better fourth quarter as natural gas prices stay at elevated levels while demand is rising with falling temperatures.
The net profit for Q3 jumped to the equivalent of $7.8 billion (582 billion Russian rubles), as "prices at the European gas market kept growing in the reporting period, bolstering our operating and financial results," Famil Sadygov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, said in a statement.
"In the third quarter of 2021, the Gazprom Group continued to demonstrate steady results, reaching record-high financial figures yet again. These figures were influenced by the situation in the export markets, whose current dynamics lead us to expect even more impressive results in Q4," Sadygov said.
Gazprom reiterated that it complies fully with its obligations to customers.
According to the Russian company, the surge in natural gas prices in Europe in Q3 was the result of low gas inventories and high gas prices curtailing the pace of EU storage restocking. In addition, Gazprom focused first on filling Russian storage before the winter, it said.
Gazprom is fulfilling its contractual obligations with customers to send natural gas to Europe, but it has not significantly raised additional supply.
Moreover, the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is being delayed by a few weeks, at least, after Germany said earlier this month it had suspended the process of certification of the pipeline until an operator of the pipeline in Germany is incorporated under German law.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More