| The concern overestimated its capabilities in the sale of oil and condensate The Gazprom Board of Directors yesterday “took note of information on measures to create a centralized system for the sale of oil, liquid hydrocarbons and refined products.” This means that the concern has not achieved support in gaining access to the export of oil and condensate. As a result, the proceeds from their sales will be much lower than planned in the company's budget. In 2003, the concern intended to receive 38.4 billion rubles from the sale of liquid hydrocarbons. ($1.2 billion) - twice as much as in 2002, as well as in 2001.
Gazprom intended to achieve such a dramatic increase in revenue by exporting a quarter of the volume of oil and condensate produced. Let us recall that since 2001, the gas monopolist was deprived of access to external markets for liquid hydrocarbons: the government commission on access to main pipelines, led by Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, considered that the concern does not have the right to an export quota, since it does not deliver oil to the Transneft system " As a result, in 2001, revenues decreased by half (to $502 million) compared to 2000, when the concern earned just over $1 billion for its oil and condensate.
The plans recorded in the current year's budget indicate that Gazprom has now seriously decided to return what was lost. To do this, it was necessary to convince Mr. Khristenko, one of the state representatives on the board of directors, to change his position, which, in particular, was supposed to be done at yesterday’s meeting. The concern's plans for this year provide for the production of 8.7 million tons of condensate and revenue from this item at $1.2 billion. On the foreign market, Gazprom expected to sell 2.1 million tons of condensate, earning about $360-370 million. However, Even having received the right to export, Gazprom would not have been able to collect the $1.2 billion budgeted.
The absence of an export quota will deprive the concern of about a quarter of a billion dollars (the cost of 2.1 million tons within the country is $100 million). It turns out that in order for the concern to fulfill its budget, a ton of condensate in Russia must cost more than $140, although the real price today is about $50. “It is not clear how Gazprom was going to sell its liquid hydrocarbons at exorbitant prices,” - - says an expert from the investment company Brunswick UBS Warburg. It is obvious that measures to create a commission that will analyze prices and prepare tenders for the sale of oil and condensate (the corresponding decision was made by the board of directors) will not achieve this.
There is another interesting aspect. If in 2001 Gazprom's subsidiaries produced 10.2 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons, and a year later - 10.7 million, then this year this figure should be 8.7 million tons. The concern's press service could not explain such a sharp drop yesterday. However, an informed source in one of Gazprom’s subsidiaries told the Vremya Novostei newspaper that this is a consequence of the very centralization of oil and condensate sales that the company, without understanding it, started last fall. Before this, the sale of this raw material was carried out by the miners themselves, for whom it was profitable to produce and sell more condensate. With the release of a directive ordering the transfer of sales functions to Gazprom’s department for marketing, processing of gas and liquid hydrocarbons, headed by Kirill Seleznev, the subsidiaries lost interest in increasing production. “As a result, part of this business went into the shadows, which was reflected in the official drop in production,” says the source. The cost of the “lost” 2 million tons on the domestic market is estimated at approximately $100 million.
The board of directors, as expected by the Vremya Novostey newspaper, did not approve the procedure for selling gas within the country, which was prepared by Gazprom management, and sent the document for revision. Alexey GRIVACHS |
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