Gazprom posts record loss in 2024

The Russian gas production giant Gazprom announced, Thursday, May 2, that it had suffered a record loss of 6.4 billion euros in 2024. These results underline the difficulties experienced by this major pillar of the Russian economy, targeted since more than two years by unprecedented Western sanctions due to the offensive in Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin.

The gas group is heavily affected by the determination of Europeans to end their energy dependence on Moscow, even though they were its main customer abroad before the Russian assault. The sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, in September 2022, also contributed to these difficulties by causing in anticipation the almost total cessation of Russian gas deliveries to the European Union.

Since then, Gazprom has been trying to find new customers, but there is a lack of infrastructure, costly and time-consuming to build, to transport its natural gas to Asia. While holding the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, it must also take on a project to extend the domestic gas distribution network. Faced with these difficulties, the group can however rely on the ramp-up of a gas pipeline from Siberia to China.