Gazprom's sales volume to its core ‘Europe and other’ markets in 1Q grew by 49% to 58.1bn m³, an increase of 19bn m³ on 39.1bn m³ in January-March 2015. Sales to former Soviet countries declined by 15.5% (by 2bn m³) to 10.9bn m³, while those in Russia declined more modestly to 75.4bn m³, just 6% or 4.9bn m³ less than in 1Q 2015.

Turkey is Gazprom's second biggest export market after Germany. In 2015 Gazprom exported about 27bn m3 of gas to Turkey. Currently Russian gas is exported to Turkey via the Blue Stream gas pipeline and the Trans Balkan gas pipeline.

Profit attributable to the owners of PJSC Gazprom for the three months ended March 31, 2016 totaled RUB 362,309 million which is RUB 19,803 million, or 5% less than for the same period of the prior year.

"Not only willing to cooperate with Zarubezhneft Company as investor in the fields, we are also calling for fully benefiting from their state of art technology,"

However, in conjunction with both lower oil prices and international sanctions, Russia has recently experienced five consecutive quarters of decline in GDP, representing that country's deepest economic downturn since 2008-09.

Crisis in the global energy industry provides a unique opportunity to expand Rosneft and PDVSA cooperation, which may have a substantial effect on the global oil markets balancing.

Between January-July, flows totaled 66.52 Bcm, 16% higher than the cumulative total for the same period last year and 13% up on the previous record high for the January-July period of 58.73 Bcm from 2014.

Russian assets are under pressure as concerns resurface that the global oil market is over supplied. After rallying from a record low at the start of the year as crude rebounded, the ruble is the third-worst performer in emerging markets so far this quarter.

In the first half 2016, our profit amounted to RR 161.9 billion (RR 53.61 per share), representing an increase of 121.7% as compared to the first half 2015.

The World Bank is downgrading its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent pace projected in January. The move is due to sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ 10 fast-growing members, with a combined $2.6 trillion economy, dire energy needs and rising military budgets, are a prime market for Russia’s top exports: hydrocarbons, energy technology and weapons.

The world’s top energy exporter is enduring the longest economic downturn of Putin’s 16-year rule. It relies on crude oil export duties and extraction taxes for about 23 percent of its budget. The government is running the widest deficit since 2010 after a slump in oil prices and is looking for options to cover the gap, including selling state assets, cutting spending and discussing a tax overhaul.

Russia is on course to post its widest budget deficit since 2010 after oil prices tumbled to a 12-year low in January, reducing revenue for the state budget in the world’s largest energy exporter.

Gazprom will send some of the gas from its controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline through Slovakia, the Russian state-controlled company said, in a move that may soften Slovak opposition to the project.

Gazprom's gas sales in Europe in the first half of 2016 rose by 14.2%, or 10.6 Bcm, compared with the same period of last year, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Thursday, signaling a sharp slowdown in export growth in the second quarter of this year.