Russian gas giant Gazprom was ranked as the most unprofitable company in Russia last year, ending 2023 with a record net loss of $6.1 billion, Forbes Russia reported on Oct. 3.
Gazprom has had a turbulent time since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion, as its revenue fell by 30% last year. Moscow's war in Ukraine led to worsening relations with Europe, limiting the operations of the company.
At the same time, Gazprom's net cash flow – a metric that deducts operating expenses from the income – increased by 5% to $242 billion in 2023. In the first half of 2024, the company also earned a net profit of about $11.5 billion, according to Forbes.
The outlet explained that Gazprom's net losses last year were mainly of an "accounting nature" and resulted from the devaluation of non-financial assets and loss from exchange rates.
The Amur Gas Chemical Complex, a joint venture of Russia's Sibur Holding and China's Sinopec, had a net loss of $756 million in 2023 and became the second least profitable company in Russia. The start of production at the plant was postponed to 2027 due to Western sanctions on equipment supplies.
The Russian e-commerce firm Ozon ($450 million in net losses), the state aircraft corporation Rostec ($360 million), and the social network VK ($360 million) were also among the five most unprofitable Russian companies in 2023.
In June, a report commissioned by Gazprom said it would not be able to recover losses incurred from Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine for at least 10 years.
The company said exports to Europe are expected to average 50-75 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually by 2035, which is only a third of the gas monopoly's pre-war exports.
The forecast is "grim," Elina Ribakova, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told the Financial Times at the time.
"Gazprom is at a dead end, and they're very much aware of it," Ribakova said after reading the report.
Kateryna Hodunova
