With Nord Stream Shut, Gazprom Posts its Biggest Lost in Two Decades

May 2, 2024

Gazprom made more than $22 billion in net profit in 2021, the last year before the war. That dropped to $13 billion in 2022, the year that Russia invaded Ukraine and then throttled down its pipeline gas exports to Western European customers. Despite the disruption, Russian energy analysts had expected the gas giant to post a profit in 2023 - a smaller profit, but still about $5 billion. Instead, Gazprom swung to a net loss of nearly $7 billion, driven down by plummeting sales of pipeline gas to Europe.

The piece isn't terribly clear how Gazprom is losing money though. Are they selling below production costs to their remaining customers for political reasons, i.e. subsidizing Russia's (remaining) "sphere of influence"? Or did they just write off Nord Stream for accounting purposes, and that's the posted loss? Or were they required to make 'voluntary' contributions to Russia's war effort?

N.B. another piece mentions that Gazprom made $31 billion of investments in 2023, apparently an increase despite lower revenues. I guess this refers [mostly] to the investments to develop new fields/pipeline for/to China, but that's not too clear either (as they apparently didn't disclose figures for those specific investments).