Russia’s Gazprom said higher sales to China and Turkey in early 2025 helped make up for the loss of pipeline flows across Ukraine that stopped on January 1, the Upstream news website reported on Wednesday.
Gazprom reported that it produced 209.5 billion cubic meters of gas in the first half of 2025, up about 0.6 percent from a year earlier, and sold 185 bcm to domestic and foreign customers. The company filed the figures in an operational update with Russian authorities.
Exports to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline rose toward the line’s contracted annual volume of 38 bcm, while Turkey’s intake from Russia reached about 11 bcm in January through June via the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines, a 28 percent year-on-year increase based on Turkish regulator data compiled by the TASS state news agency
Power of Siberia connects eastern Siberian fields to northern China under a long-term contract with the China National Petroleum Corporation, while Blue Stream runs under the Black Sea to Turkey and TurkStream runs to Turkey then on to southeast Europe. These routes now carry a larger share of Russia’s remaining pipeline exports to non-domestic buyers after most European Union states cut purchases following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A five-year Russia-Ukraine gas transit agreement expired at the end of 2024, halting Gazprom’s westbound flows via Ukraine on January 1. Ukraine’s system carried 15.4 bcm of Russian gas in 2024 to Slovakia, Austria, the Czech Republic and Moldova, according to published transport data and independent analyses.
Russia’s overall gas output fell in the first eight months of 2025, according to the Federal State Statistics Service, indicating weaker production outside Gazprom. Gazprom also said gas moved through its trunkline network declined by a little more than 2 percent in the first half, which it linked to softer demand from Russian customers.
Even as Turkey’s pipeline imports from Russia rose in early 2025, Ankara is moving to diversify supply as pressure from Washington grows over the country’s energy dependence on Moscow.
US President Donald Trump recently asked Turkey to curb its purchases of Russian energy.
Turkey’s state-run BOTAŞ then signed a 20-year LNG deal with Mercuria for about 4 bcm a year starting in 2026, with cargoes from US terminals. Turkey also announced LNG agreements with Cheniere and ExxonMobil.