Gazprom Chairman Approves Budget for 2004-2005

Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller has today signed the gas giant's budget for 2004-2005. According to Gazprom's press office, the company's income in 2004 will be 56.1 billion roubles (USD 1.8 billion), and 179.2 billion roubles in 2005 (USD 5.7 billion). The company's expenditure and investment are estimated at 183.1 billion roubles (USD 5.82 billion) and 153.6 billion roubles (USD 4.88 billion) respectively.

The company's deficit in 2004 could be 127.1 billion roubles (USD 4.03 billion). At the same time, in 2005 Gazprom predicts a profit of 25.6 billion roubles (USD 813 million). The draft budget envisages meeting obligations of 176.1 billion roubles (USD 5.6 billion) in 2004, and 76.6 billion roubles (USD 2.43 billion) in 2005.

Gazprom's authorised capital stock totals 118,367,564,500 roubles (USD 3.75 billion) and consists of 23, 673,512,900 shares with a nominal value of 5 roubles (USD 0.16). The Russian government owns 38.37% of the shares, of which 35% belong to the Property Ministry and 3.7% to the Russian Federal Property fund. Foreign shareholders own 11.5% of the shares, Stroitransgaz owns 5.846%, and 44.28% are divided among 500 thousand companies and private shareholders. In 2002 Gazprom extracted over 521 billion cubic metres of gas. Its net profit for the first nine months of 2002 fell by more than half compared to the previous year, and totaled 15.963 billion roubles (USD 505 million).

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