State-owned gas monopoly Gazprom of Russia has reported that its export revenue surged 43 percent last year to a record mark $37.2 billion. Gazprom supplies almost a quarter of Europe’s gas consumption. The export revenue of the firm shot up last year due to high prices of gas under extremely volatile political conditions. The firm has expressed its confidence to achieve fresh record revenue in the current year.
The firm, this time around, has been constantly hitting the headlines over a series of gas price disputes with its neighboring countries and sending rippling effects to Europe. Recently, Gazprom was shot up in news when it had threatened to cut its supplies to Belarus and Georgia. These disputes have shaken the European trust in Russia as an energy supplier.
Following the disputes many countries have accused Russian government using this firm as a foreign policy instrument to influence its neighbors. However, Moscow vehemently refutes allegations saying it is concerned over reliability of Gazprom supplies.
Moreover, in recent times Russia has started exerting greater state control on energy resources as it has recently grabbed a majority stake in Sakhalin-2 gas project from Shell. The deal was finalized for 50 percent-plus-one share in the projected ceded to the state owned firm. Though the analysts argue that the deal was better than expected for Shell but it has raised concern over Russian strategy to nationalize key industries.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently warned Russia increasing state ownership is ’step back’ for the Russian economy. The last report released by OECD has particularly criticized Gazprom for its activities. The report said that if the nationalization trend has not been reversed, the Russian economy may face a sharp slowdown that grew strongly at 6.7 percent during 1999-2005.
