Russian pipeline natural gas and LNG supplier Gazprom said overdue debt of Russian consumers for natural gas supplies over the past year amounted to 172.5 billion Russian roubles ($2.27Bln) with the biggest debts being in Moscow.
Gazprom said the accumulated debt was slightly lower than the previous year by 5.9Bln roubles ($77.7 million). The Gazprom board heard that current gas payments via digital services grew by almost 1.5 times which improved “payment discipline” with regard to domestic gas supplies.
Measures
“Measures taken to recover the debt for the gas supplied included interaction with government authorities to perfect the current legislation that regulates the procedure of paying for gas,” said the company.
Russian consumers in 2021 saw the company significantly ramp up its gas supplies by more than 12 percent as demand rose in the domestic market.
Gazprom’s data showed it supplied 257.8 billion cubic metres to the domestic market from the gas transmission system. This was the highest level since 2013 and an increase of 31.9 Bcm compared with 2020.
“The company continues to take measures to reduce the overdue consumer debt for gas supplies, which remains a key problem in the domestic gas market,” said the statement from the St Petersburg-based company.
“As many as 62 constituent entities of the Russian Federation reduced their debt to Gazprom last year (against 50 regions in 2020),” it added.
In absolute terms, the biggest reductions were achieved in Moscow and in the regions of Kemerovo, Samara, Krasnodar Territory and the Penza Region.
Decreases in overdue debt were observed for most consumer groups, including heat suppliers.
