Russia, the country with the world's largest gas reserves, is looking to deal with the situation of excess gas when exporting to Europe continues to plummet.
The information was revealed by government officials and business leaders in Russia.
Gazprom peaked its gas exports to Europe at between 175 and 180 billion cubic meters in 2018-19, but that figure fell to just 32 billion cubic meters in 2024, due to the impact of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian gas exports to Europe are expected to continue to fall by half this year after Russian gas transit through Ukraine was suspended since the beginning of the year.
Russian Minister for the Development of the Near East and the Arctic, Alexei Chekunkov, shared at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Petersburg said that northern regions of Russia are facing gas excesses.
Previously, half a billion cubic meters of gas were transported every day via pipelines to the West, but now there are no more. The question is what to do with that amount of gas. This is becoming urgent," said Mr. Chekunkov.
Minister for Rural Development and the Arctic Alexei Chekunkov added that major investors are increasingly focusing on petrochemicals, and excess gas can be used to generate electricity for data centers using artificial intelligence technology, as energy demand for these facilities is increasing globally.
Gazprom will produce 416.19 billion cubic metres of gas in 2024, after a record low of 355.23 billion cubic metres in 2023. However, in 2024, the group only consumed 361.7 billion m3, including consumption in both domestic and export markets.
Gazprom also uses part of its gas for internal needs, including power generation at gas mines and gas transit stations.
Russia's largest data center operator Bit River said it can consume up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to accompany large-scale digital currency mining.
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Petersburg, Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Sor Pavelokin noted that the cost of gas production is still too high to serve data centers.
According to him, gas should be used for the coal mining industry, a sector facing many difficulties, including international sanctions related to the Ukrainian conflict.
"Our coal industry is currently in a rather difficult situation. So why is expensive gas used to build additional data capacity, while we can build power plants right at coal mines?" - Mr. Sorokin asked.
