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Gazprom, the Russian state gas group, announced this Thursday record losses of 6.4 billion euros last year, in a context of almost closure of the European market and sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
According to figures published by the natural gas producing group, the net loss in 2023 amounted to 629 billion rubles, compared to the net profits of 1,226 billion rubles recorded in 2022.
The results reflect the difficulties faced by this pillar company of the Russian economy, which more than two years ago was subject to unprecedented Western sanctions due to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
The gas giant was strongly affected by the determination shown by the Europeans to eliminate energy dependence on Moscow. You Europeans were the main foreign customer. before the offensive launched by the Russians in February 2022.
The sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022 practically paralyzed the supply of Russian gas to the European Union and since then the Gazprom has been trying to find new customers, but faces a lack of infrastructurewhose construction is expensive and time-consuming, to transport gas to Asia.
With the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, the large Russian state group is still under strong budgetary pressure without access to international financing and must undertake a project to expand its national gas distribution network.
Faced with these difficulties, the group can count, however, on the growing importance of the Force 1 Siberian gas pipeline, in the Russian Far East, towards China.
Source: Observadora
