Natural gas production in Europe in 2023 decreased by 19 billion cubic meters or 8.2 percent compared to the previous year, to 214 billion cubic meters.
Such data shall be given by the natural gas report for the forum of gas exporting countries (GECF) for 2024.
According to the report, the world production of natural gas last year increased by 0.8 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 4.08 trillion cubic meters. Over the indicated period, there was an increase in natural gas production in North America, the Middle East and the Asian-Pacific region and a decrease in Eurasia and Europe.
In Europe, natural gas production has decreased due to continuing maintenance of deposits.
In Europe, the production of three main manufacturers of Norway, the Netherlands and the UK decreased by 7 billion, 5.5 billion and 4.6 billion cubic meters, respectively.
The report notes that this decrease occurred due to the extension of repair work and the closure of some mature gas fields.
Gas production in Norway in 2023 amounted to 126 billion cubic meters, decreasing by 5.3 percent compared to the previous year. A decrease in production in Norway occurred mainly due to extension of the repair period at the troll deposit and the Collsnes gas processing plant, which are important deposits in the North Sea.
The report also refers to the discovery of Turkey of the natural gas deposit in the Black Sea.
“Turkey has taken an important step towards reducing dependence on imports and strengthening energy security, having achieved significant progress in increasing the domestic gas supplies with the start of gas production at the Sakarya deposit,” the report said.
The document noticed that Romania has strategic plans for the development of large gas fields in the Black Sea.
“several other events in Europe indicate the ongoing efforts to ensure and expand the power of gas production in the region,” it says in it.
The report also notes a reduction in the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe last year and Import LNG into Turkey.
The main reason for the reduction of the volume of gas purchased by Turkey was the growth of gas production and a decrease in gas consumption in the country, the report says.
The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Alparslan Bayractar on April 19 said that efforts to increase the production of natural gas at the Sakarya gas field in the Black Sea continue and it is planned to increase the daily production of natural gas to 5 million cubic meters by May.
Currently, 4 million cubic meters of natural gas are mined daily at the Sakarya gas field.