REUTERS

MOSCOW GAZPROM is poised to raise gas production next winter by around 2 percent, a company official said, a promise aimed to sooth European customers’ worries about fuel shortages they faced during the last cold spell.

In an interview with Gazprom’s inhouse magazine, Deputy Chief Executive Vitaly Markelov said the company planned to raise gas production after the launch of new fields.

This year, Gazprom is set to commission the huge Bovanenkovo field, the biggest gas deposit in the Yamal Arctic region, with reserves of 4.9 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, enough to meet global demand for over a year.

Severenergia, a joint venture between Gazprom’s oil arm Gazprom Neft and Russia’s top non-state gas producer Novatek as well as Italy’s Eni and Enel , are also set to launch Samburg field.

“Taking into account all these launches, we expect that Gazprom’s output during winter of 2012/2013 could reach around 1.644 billion cubic metres (bcm) a day.

This is almost 2 percent higher than the last winter’s peak,” Markelov said.