MOSCOW: Russia has pushed back by “several years” a plan to reach an annual liquefied natural gas output target of 100 million tonnes, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TV on Thursday, citing the effect of Western sanctions on its energy industry.

Russia’s long-term plans to gain a fifth of the global LNG market by 2030-2035, from 8 per cent currently, have been challenged by sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine, including against the new Arctic LNG 2 plant. A recently updated government strategy, which outlines Russia’s long-term plans in energy sector, sees the country producing 90-105 million tonnes of LNG by 2030 and 110-130m tonnes by 2036.

“Our goal was to reach 100 million tonnes. It is clear that, due to sanctions-related restrictions, this will now be pushed back by several years,” Novak told Rossiya-24 TV station, without elaborating.

Novak also said that Russia’s oil and gas condensate production this year is seen broadly unchanged from 2024, at around 516 million tonnes, or some 10.32m barrels per day. That’s an improvement on a previous outlook for 1pc decline, given by President Vladimir Putin in October.

Russia’s LNG production rose by 5.4pc in 2024 to 34.7m tonnes, below the expected 35.2 million tonnes.

The European Union plans to ban Russian LNG imports from Jan 1, 2027, while there is also fierce competition form the United States, which is expanding sales in Europe, and from Qatar, which already dominating sales to Asia.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2025