GAZPROM

GAZPROM: translation

With more than 445,000 employees and more than $100 billion in revenues, OAO Gazprom is the world’s largest extractor ofnatural gas. It is also Russia’s largest company and accounts for one-quarter of the country’staxrevenues. Former Prime MinisterViktor Zubkovis the current chairman of the board of directors. After the discovery of large gas fields inSiberiaand theVolgaUral regionin the 1970s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) developed the commodity for export. UnderMikhail Gorbachev, the Ministry of the Oil and Gas Industry oversaw the creation of a joint stock company that would become Gazprom in 1992. The company was privatized in 1994, with the Kremlin maintaining a sizable share.Viktor Chernomyrdinran the company in the mid-1990s; when he lost his post as prime minister, the government demanded and received millions in back taxes. His replacement on the board of directors was the future Russian PresidentDmitry Medvyedev. On Medvyedev’s watch, the company took overNTVin a move to create a more politically friendlymediaenvironment for the Russian president,Vladimir Putin. In addition to its media holdings, Gazprom is also active inagriculture,banking, construction, and the insurance industry.

In 2004, the state became the majority shareholder in the company; in the same year, foreign ownership of Gazprom shares became possible for the first time; the company is traded on the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges, as well as Russian markets.Gazprom’s largest fields are located inYamaliya. Annually, the company produced approximately 550 billion cubic meters of natural gas and more than 30 tons of crudeoil. Gazprom is estimated to control 17 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves. The Shtokman field in theBarents Seais seen as the future of the company, as the field is estimated to contain 3.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and more than 37 million tons of gas condensate.

Gazprom is the dominant or exclusive provider of natural gas to Austria, Macedonia,Moldova, Bosnia,Finland, theBaltic States, Bulgaria, Hungary,Turkey,Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. TheEuropean Union(EU) as a whole gets a quarter of its gas from the company. Shipment is dictated by the company’s Unified Gas Supply System subsidiary, which controls compressor stations and 159,500 kilometers of pipelines across Russia. The company is developing two new routes to European markets—Nord Stream (via theBaltic Sea) and South Stream (via theBlack Sea), following disputes withUkraineover pricing and allegations of theft of gas en route to Europe. The dispute resulted in the cutting of supplies in early 2009; this major disruption followed smaller service interruptions and spats in 2005–2006 and 2007–2008. Following gas shortages in the Balkans and elsewhere, the EU publicly stated that Russia could no longer be considered a reliable partner in the field of energy provision.