Gazprom prepares for worst ever year in its history

This year may be the worst in the history of Gazprom. The first official results of the first six months show that the company goes towards to new record low in the production and export of gas on the background of falling prices: being hard pressed by independent producers in Russia, it is at the same time reaping the fruits of the policy of restricting exports to Europe. Gazprom still expects to improve the situation in the second half of the year. But the sad state of affairs may have advantages for the company - the Government is unlikely to decide to further destabilize the situation, supporting the radical proposals of Rosneft on he reform of the gas market.

The Government expects a sharp decline of the production and export of Gazprom on the results of 2015, the monitoring of the Ministry of Economy in the first six months shows. As since April data on the monopoly’s production is no longer published separately in the summary of the Central Dispatch Department of the Fuel and Energy Sector, the information of the Ministry is the first official information on the dynamics of the production and exports of gas in the first six months, coming not from the company itself. The Ministry states that in the first six months the production of the Gazprom group decreased by 13.1% to 209 billion cubic meters, and gas exports - by 12.9% to 88.5 billion cubic meters. At the same time, the production data includes not only Gazprom, but also Gazpromneft, which last year produced 12.4 billion cubic meters of gas.