Gazprom, facing financial difficulties due to the Russian offensive in Ukraine, plans to eliminate around 40% of positions at its Saint Petersburg headquarters, a group spokesperson announced to Agence France on Monday. Press (AFP).
This announcement comes two weeks after the end of lucrative Russian gas transit via Ukraine, a decision taken by kyiv to limit Moscow’s revenues after three years of conflict.
In a letter addressed on December 23 to the company’s boss, Alexei Miller, and published by a local Russian media, the vice-chairman of the board of directors, Elena Ilioukhina, proposed reducing the workforce of Gazprom’s administration of “more than 4,100” has “2,500 people”.
Questioned by AFP, Sergei Koupryanov, in charge of communications at Gazprom, confirmed the authenticity of the document. “We do not comment on internal procedures”he added.
In his letter, Mme Ilyukhina indicated that “the challenges facing the Gazprom group require a reduction in preparation and decision-making time”. These layoffs would not concern production sites.
Gazprom, the flagship of the Russian economy and headed by Alexeï Miller, very close to Vladimir Putin, has had to face the sudden reduction of the European market since 2022. In 2023, the group, which has a monopoly on gas exports, recorded a net loss of nearly $7 billion, a first in more than twenty years.
Bad news has been accumulating for three years for the group: after the end of deliveries to Germany following the sabotage of Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea in September 2022, the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine stopped the 1is January. According to experts, cited by the Russian daily KnowledgeGazprom will lose around 5 billion euros in annual revenue for its deliveries via Ukraine, or around 6% of its turnover.
