Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, which lost its European market and announced losses of hundreds of billions of rubles, is planning extensive layoffs for head office employees.
According to the St. Petersburg-based 47news website, the company is considering the dismissal of 1,600 employees at its head office. This proposal was voiced by Elena Ilyukhina, deputy chairman of Gazprom’s board of directors, in a petition sent to the company’s president, Alexei Miller.
The petition highlighted the challenges facing Gazprom and the necessity of cost optimization in management and production processes. According to Ilyukhina, Gazprom spends 50 billion rubles annually on head office employees. She stated that the number of these employees could be reduced from 4,100 to 2,500.
On the other hand, Sergey Kupriyanov, head of Gazprom’s Information Policy Department, confirmed the situation to Forbes. It is stated in the report that the personnel to be laid off are planned to be determined by 15 February.
Gazprom, which cut natural gas deliveries through Ukraine, lost two-thirds of its exports. In 2023, the company’s gas exports outside Europe totaled only 69 billion cubic meters, the lowest level since 1985. Exports to Europe fell to 28 billion cubic meters, dropping to levels last seen in the late 1970s.
In 2024, gas deliveries to Europe increased to 32 billion cubic meters but remained less than a fifth of pre-war levels (180 billion cubic meters in 2018–2019).
In 2023, for the first time in 25 years, Gazprom posted a net loss of 629 billion rubles, according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This figure marked the largest loss in the company’s history.
Although Gazprom announced a profit of 989 billion rubles in the January–September period last year, losses in the gas business continued, amounting to 480.6 billion rubles in the first half of the year. Gazprom’s annual revenue is expected to fall by about $6 billion with the end of natural gas deliveries through Ukraine on 1 January 2025.
