Gazprom 2012 LNG Sales Fall on Supply, Previous Sakhalin-2 Delay

OAO Gazprom (GAZP)’s liquefied natural-gas sales fell in the first nine months of last year on a decline in fuel available for the Russian exporter to purchase, and the effect of earlier delays at its Sakhalin-2 development.

Gazprom’s LNG sales dropped to 0.9 million metric tons from 1.9 million tons, the producer said in a preliminary prospectus for a planned Eurobond sale obtained by Bloomberg News. Sales were 2.3 million tons for the whole of 2011, 1.9 million tons in 2010 and 1.4 million tons in 2009, according to the document. Gazprom’s press service confirmed the details in the prospectus.

The biggest gas producer took control of the Royal Dutch Shell Plc-led Sakhalin-2 site in 2006, while exports from the plant were delayed to February 2009. Moscow-based Gazprom bought higher-than-contracted volumes from Sakhalin Energy in 2010 and 2011 to make up for delays at Sakhalin-2 in the prior two years, resulting in lower sales in 2012, according to the prospectus.

The plant has an annual capacity of 9.6 million tons and has been operating beyond that level as demand for LNG Asia grows. Production from the project was “no less than in 2011,” Ivan Chernyakhovsky, a spokesman for operator Sakhalin Energy, said by phone, without disclosing figures.

Gazprom has an agreement for the purchase and sale of 1 million tons of LNG a year from Sakhalin Energy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net