Given the growth of losses and the associated sale of state corporation assets, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller may resign before the end of his contract.
Thus, if at the end of last year the net loss of the gas monopoly amounted to 629 billion rubles, then for the first half of 2024 the enterprise went into the minus by 480 billion. At the same time, revenue increased to 2.927 trillion (7%). However, the cost of work increased by 15%, as a result of which the gross profit decreased to 572 billion rubles. The deterioration of financial results is inevitably followed by an increase in the debt burden, which at the end of last year was estimated at 6.7 trillion rubles, but taking into account the debt on rent and perpetual bonds, this figure reaches 7.7 trillion (38% higher than the level of the end of 2022).
Experts say the crisis is caused by the loss of the marginal gas market in Europe, sanctions, and falling gas prices. However, last July, Gazprom’s supplies to Europe increased by 14.9% month-on-month and by 5.7% year-on-year, amounting to 2.8 billion cubic meters. For comparison, similar supplies in 2019 amounted to 40 billion cubic meters, which was considered one of the lowest figures of the last decade. It was not possible to solve the problem through Asian supplies: it is not possible to compensate for European volumes, and in addition, a number of important infrastructure projects are stalled. In particular, agreements on volumes and prices for the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China have not yet been reached, and supplies without strict contractual obligations lead to losses.
Against such a critical background, the growth in remuneration paid to top management is striking. In particular, based on the results of 2022, Gazprom’s management received 2.867 billion rubles (almost 50% more than a year earlier). For 2023, members of the board of directors will also receive solid payments - 0.005% of EBITDA calculated according to IFRS. We are talking about 66 million rubles, and Alexey Miller will receive a much larger amount - about 75.8 million.
In order to get out of the current crisis, the Gazprom team began selling off assets, explaining the need for it by the final move of the state corporation’s head office from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Thus, during one of the recent transactions, a production and technical base on Obrucheva Street in the southwest of Moscow was sold for 4 billion rubles. Its buyer was the St. Petersburg-based Production and Trading Company Etalon, established in 2023 (co-owners - Dmitry Kachan and Natalia Bukreeva). It is also known that in March, Gazprom put up for sale three assets in the UK and the Netherlands for a total of 344 million euros, but since their activities are effectively "frozen", the sale is understandable.
