Gazprom
Stock performance
History
Gazprom was formed in 1989 out of the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry, inheriting the ministry's vast pipeline network and gas fields as the USSR began experimenting with converting state ministries into commercial enterprises. It survived the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s largely intact and under continued strong state influence, becoming Russia's dominant natural-gas company and a central instrument of Russian energy diplomacy toward Europe for decades, supplying a large share of European gas imports through extensive pipeline infrastructure built up over the postwar and post-Soviet periods.
Business model
Gazprom explores for, produces, transports, and sells natural gas, historically earning the bulk of its profit from long-term pipeline supply contracts with European utilities and industrial customers, alongside domestic gas sales within Russia at regulated, lower prices. Its extensive pipeline network, including major projects like Nord Stream, was built specifically to lock in long-term European demand for Russian gas.
Market position
Gazprom was for decades the dominant supplier of natural gas to the European market, but its position has been dramatically undermined since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which European governments moved rapidly to cut dependence on Russian gas, sharply reducing pipeline flows and Gazprom's European revenue. It has since sought to redirect exports toward China and other Asian markets, though new pipeline infrastructure to replace lost European volumes will take years to build.
Country impact
Gazprom has historically been one of the most important companies in Russia, a major source of government revenue and a direct instrument of state foreign-policy leverage over European energy security. The collapse of its European gas exports since 2022 has been a significant blow to Russian government revenue and is closely tied to the broader economic costs Russia has borne as a result of Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine.