Latest News

Russian federal government tells loss-making Gazprom not to pay dividends for 2023

The Russian government on Monday advised stateowned gas giant Gazprom not to pay dividends for 2023, according to a decree published on its website, after the company reported its very first yearly loss since 1999.

Gazprom's shares fell by more than 5.5% in Moscow to reach their least expensive level since Oct. 10, 2022, not long after its exports were damaged by mysterious blasts which ruptured 3 of 4 Nord Stream undersea pipelines to Germany.

The St. Petersburg-based company sustained a loss of some $7 billion for 2023 due to plunging gas sales to Europe in the middle of serious political fallout over the conflict in Ukraine.

Europe was Gazprom's largest sales market till 2022, when Russia's conflict with Ukraine caused a decline in Gazprom's gas products.

Russia supplied an overall of around 63.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe by numerous paths in 2022, according to Gazprom information and estimations. The volume decreased further, by 55.6%, to 28.3 bcm last year.

That compares with a peak of 200.8 bcm that Gazprom pumped in 2018 to the EU and other countries, such as Turkey.

(source: Reuters)