Bad news for Gazprom
January 29, 2015
Gazprom's profits between July and September 2014 reached 105.7 billion rubles ($1.5 billion, 1.36 billion euros), while revenues in that quarter were down 6 percent year-on-year to 1.13 trillion rubles ($16.5 billion).
In all, Gazprom posted a 35-percent drop in nine-month net profit to 556.3 billion rubles ($8.13 billion) year-on-year.
"Further falls [in oil] may negatively affect our business … [and] the ability to finance planned capital investments," Gazprom said in a statement for its nine-month results ending in September, referring to oil prices that have fallen 60 percent since June.
The results were in line with analysts' predictions following the suspension of Russia's gas supplies to Ukraine amidst ongoing fighting.
Russia and Ukraine reached an interim gas deal agreement in October, when Kyiv paid off some of its debts to Gazprom. The Russian producer now puts those debts at $2.44 billion, an estimate that Ukraine disagrees with.
After pro-Western authorities came to power a year ago in Ukraine, Kyiv refused to accept a price rise imposed by Gazprom, and the dispute, along with military conflict in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists, has been going on for several months.
bk/hg (AFP, Reuters)