Gift from Gazprom

In January, gas payments fell by almost 60%

If until now expert estimates about Gazprom’s possible losses from the restructuring of the gas distribution system within the country, which was blessed by Alexey Miller on the eve of the New Year (the Vremya Novostey newspaper wrote more than once about order No. 129 signed by him on December 30, 2002) looked speculative, then now they have acquired a completely material form. As a source in the Ministry of Energy, which receives reports on the collection of gas payments, told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, as of January 28, Mezhregiongaz was able to receive only 40% of the planned funds. If we convert this amount into rubles, it turns out that Gazprom’s sales subsidiary, and with it the concern itself, were short 12 billion (about $400 million) out of almost 21 billion rubles in the first month of the year. Although there were three days left until the end of the month at the time of preparing the report, it is hard to believe that the plan will be fulfilled.

Mezhregiongaz emphasized to the Vremya Novostey newspaper that they are trying with all their might to ensure that the instructions of the parent company are fulfilled, including 100 percent payment for the supplied gas. But they categorically refused to comment on specific figures. The Gazprom press service did not confirm the information about the reduction in gas payments in January. An official representative of the concern told the Vremya Novostey newspaper that “last year, the level of gas payments for all consumer groups was 97% of the plan.” “And in January, at least this figure did not fall,” he emphasized.

At the same time, the other day, First Deputy General Director of Vladimirregiongaz LLC (one of the regional “subsidiaries” of Mezhregiongaz, with which direct contracts should be concluded), Vladimir Bobkov, held a special press conference at which he called the situation with payment for gas supplies catastrophic. For more than three weeks in January, the gas payment level was only 37% and instead of 341 million, the company received about 115 million rubles. In accordance with the principles declared by Gazprom, gas supplies next month in such a region will be carried out only for the amount of payments made, that is, a third of what is required. Considering that the main defaulter is Vladimirteplogaz, which owns communal boiler houses, in winter conditions it is not difficult to imagine the consequences of gas shortages.

The same situation, according to the Ministry of Energy, is in most other regions. Oddly enough, in fact, the only region that has paid for 100% of gas supplies is the depressed Kurgan region. But this is most likely explained by the small volume of consumption - 30 million rubles per month. In Tatarstan, only by the end of the month a little more than half of the planned funds (about a billion rubles) had been received. In the Moscow region, with which the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller recently signed an agreement, only a quarter of the required amount of 1.5 billion rubles has been transferred. Regional gas distribution companies refuse to comment on the figures, repeating like a mantra that they cannot make the figures public until the end of the month. In addition, according to an employee of one of these enterprises, January, due to the holidays, has always been not the best month in terms of payment collection.

A representative of one of the large consumers, on condition of anonymity, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper that “during structural changes in the system, as well as conflicts of interest (namely, this is happening between Gazprom and Mezhregiongaz), there is always a desire to hold back money.” “In the context of a shortage of time with the restructuring of sales (renewal of contracts, re-registration of packages of regional companies of the IRG, where regional authorities have shares in Gazprom, etc.), which the management of the concern has, it will have to make concessions, including including in terms of debt,” the interlocutor believes. Therefore, in his opinion, nothing unexpected happened.

In addition to the New Year's aggravation of non-payments, Order No. 129 is accruing other incidents. Thus, a scandal erupted in Perm over gas supplies. The Perm region, as Alexander Terekhov, general director of Regiongasholding (a subsidiary of MRG, which accumulated most of the low- and medium-pressure gas distribution networks), said in an interview with the Vremya Novostey newspaper, is one of the few where the enterprise that owns these gas pipelines is not part of the Gazprom system. Due to numerous attempts to obtain these assets, its owners are “at war” with Mezhregiongaz and its local “daughter” Permregiongaz. On January 28, the general director and main owner of the Uralgazservice company, Valery Sazanov, speaking on air on the Perm TV channel AUTO TV, said that in connection with the release of the order of the head of Gazprom No. 129, the concern would supply gas to the region not through Permregiongaz, but through his company. As Mr. Sazanov’s assistant Igor Aderyukov explained to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the statement of his boss directly follows from the order of Alexei Miller. The fact is that in Appendix No. 2, which lists the regional gases with which Gazprom will now enter into direct agreements, there are only 50 items. Although in total the IWG has 52 regional companies and 6 branches. As a result of a small investigation, it turned out that regional gases from the Perm and Kaliningrad regions turned out to be “forgotten”. But at the same time, these subjects of the federation were included in Appendix No. 3, along with those where the IWG has branches. In them, as is known, Alexey Miller ordered contracts to be concluded directly with consumers, from which Uralgazservice concluded that they were “lucky” to receive most of the gas.

Gazprom yesterday could not explain why the two regional gas companies were “out of the game.” However, apparently, they were simply forgotten about. The fact is that these are the last regions where the branches of the IWG were transformed into separate companies (after the first quarter the status of the last six should have been changed). It is even possible that the concern simply did not know about their existence. True, at the time the decree was signed, both companies had already existed for about a year.

Alexey GRIVACHS