Russia has said it wants to cut substantially its gas flows to Europe via West-leaning Ukraine by doubling the capacity of the existing Nord Stream trunk via the Baltic Sea and laying gas pipes to Turkey and onwards through the Black Sea.

Russia’s Gazprom, the world’s largest conventional gas producer, has raised about $2.20 billion from selling a 2.9% stake to a single buyer at a large discount to the market price.

Gazprom’s market value is $79.4 billion, second in Russia to Sberbank’s $82 billion, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Russian gas sales on Gazprom Export's Electronic Sales Platform (ESP) surged to another new record high on Wednesday, with a colossal 406 million cu m sold in the latest auction.

Ukraine and Russia have been in dispute over gas issues for years, which escalated after a pro-Russian leader of Ukraine was toppled in 2014.

The 229 million cu m sold Thursday is about half the average daily flows of total Russian gas to Europe last month of around 464 million cu m.

the Gazprom Group signed a five-year contract to purchase natural gas from Turkmengas (for the period through June 30, 2024).

"Today our forecast for gas pipeline deliveries in 2019 to Europe and Turkey is between 198.6 and 201.1 Bcm," Miller said in a speech at the company's annual general meeting. Gazprom exported 201.9 Bcm to Europe in 2018, accounting for around 36.8% of the market.

Gazprom's 10-year transit deal with Ukraine's Naftogaz expires on December 31 this year, with some in the European gas market becoming increasingly concerned that there could be disruption to Russian gas flows via Ukraine as a result.

According to the document, Gazprom will supply up to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year to VNG Handel & Vertrieb in 2021 and 2022.