Russian government orders Gazprom not to pay dividends for last year

The Russian government has ordered state-owned gas company Gazprom not to pay dividends for last year. According to Reuters, this is stated in a decree published on the company's website. Gazprom reported its first full-year loss since 1999 last year. The company's performance was negatively affected by a sharp drop in gas sales to Europe, resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Gazprom shares fell by more than 5.5 percent on the Moscow Exchange today, reaching their lowest level since October 2022, Reuters reported.

Gazprom announced in early May that it had posted a net loss of 629 billion rubles (roughly CZK 160 billion) last year, after making a profit of 1.2 trillion rubles the previous year.

Europe was Gazprom's largest market before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to Reuters calculations, Gazprom's natural gas deliveries to Europe fell by 55.6 percent last year to 28.3 billion cubic meters, down from 63.8 billion the previous year. Gazprom's deliveries to Europe peaked in 2018, when they totaled 200.8 billion cubic meters.

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