Gazprom Reports Record Gas Exports as Europe Shivers

Russia's Gazprom said on Saturday its daily supplies of natural gas to countries outside of the former Soviet Union have reached a record high due to cold weather in Europe.

Gazprom pumped 615.5 million cubic metres of gas to countries outside the former USSR borders on Jan. 6, beating its previous record hit on Jan. 5 by nearly 1 million cubic metres.

"We have reached a totally new level of gas exports in conditions of a cold snap, lower extraction volumes in Europe and higher demand for gas on the energy market," Gazprom's CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement.

Gazprom delivers around a third of EU's gas, and the recent spike in European demand boosted Gazprom's supplies through Nord Stream pipeline to an all-time high of 165.2 million cubic metres in the past few days, up from 160.75 million cubic metres on Jan. 1., Gazprom said.

The current volumes of gas supply, if extrapolated throughout the year, exceed the Nord Stream's projected volumes by 10 percent, Miller said.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Stephen Powell)