OREANDA-NEWS During eight months of 2018, Russia produced about 473.785 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 5.6% more in annual terms. This became known on Sunday from the materials of FGBU "CDU TEK".

In March, Russia produced 65,676 billion cubic meters of gas (growth by 14.1% relative to March last year). In August, the country produced 54.621 billion cubic meters of gas.

The Agency notes that the company does not publish data on Gazprom's production separately, including them as "estimated" in the line "other subsoil users". In this line, the volume of production is indicated as 360,330 billion cubic meters of gas for January-August, 40,772 billion cubic meters – in August.

NOVATEK, one of the largest independent gas producers, produced 29.514 billion cubic meters (3.589 billion cubic meters in August) in January - August. Operators SRP for 8 months  produced 18.182 billion cubic meters (in August-1.916 billion cubic meters).

Of vertically integrated oil companies the largest volumes of "blue fuel" in the period under review produced the following OC: Rosneft - 30,072 billion cubic meters. m (in August - 3,670 billion cubic meters), "LUKOIL" - 14,049 billion cubic meters (1,725 billion cubic meters), "Surgutneftegaz" - 6,492 billion cubic meters (0,815 billion cubic meters), "Gazprom oil" - 11,271 billion cubic meters. m (in August - 1,616 billion cubic meters).

Iin June, the IEA reported on the expectation of growth in demand for gas by 1.6% per year. According to the Agency's forecast, demand will increase to 4.1 trillion cubic meters by 2023. At the same time, experts believe that China will become the world's largest importer.

Earlier, the Ministry of natural resources said that the US and EU sanctions against Russian oil and gas companies hampered the development of new gas production projects in Russia in 2016-2017.

The Ministry explained that during this period, due to sanctions, not a single significant gas field was put into operation. Gas companies in this period focused on the work on existing projects