Russian President Vladimir Putin and Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson at Arctic LNG 2 in 2023
Russia’s implausible gas strategy
The country may have the resources, but sanctions and a lack of market access make its gas ambitions look very questionable
Russia approved a comprehensive new 2050 energy strategy in April, targeting significant growth in gas production and exports while seeking to maintain stable oil production. While energy strategies tend to be more aspirational than realistic, Moscow’s gas ambitions lack credibility—even without the added challenges posed by Western sanctions. The Russian government had been preparing its latest long-term energy strategy for over two years, with delays attributed to the highly volatile macroeconomic conditions resulting from sanctions and other fallout from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In the base case, ‘inertial’, scenario of the plan, published on 14 April, gas output is projected to rise
Also in this section
10 March 2026
By shutting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has cut exports of distillate-rich Middle Eastern crude, jet fuel and diesel, and is holding the energy market hostage
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
