Gas leak

"Our everything" can become our

Our everything. “National Home” - so, having discarded false modesty, he calls himself Gazprom in his own advertising. There are enough reasons for such a slogan: a gas monopoly provides 20% of the state budget revenues, its revenue in the 2007 pre -crisis was $ 93 billion (7% of GDP - 2.5 times more than the expenses of the state budget for national defense). In the same - the most successful year in its history, Gazprom became the third company of the world with a capitalization of $ 330 billion. The company accounts for a 12% industrial production of Russia and 16% of its exports in value terms. It would seem that it can threaten the well -being of such a colossus? Last year’s crisis unexpectedly gave an answer to this question - shale gas. In early April, Poland announced that large reserves of shale gas were identified in the country, thanks to which the total reserves of blue fuel in the EU can grow by almost 1.5 times. European shale gas production projects can become a serious threat to Gazprom in the coming years: the share of the Russian gas monopoly in the European market, which is 25%today, can be reduced by almost a third. And this means that the North Stream and South Stream projects, which are connected with the strategy of the further expansion of Gazprom to Europe, will not need anyone, and tens of billions of dollars spent nowhere. If we take into account that today the debts of Gazprom are an astronomical amount - $ 60 billion, it becomes clear: talking about the imminent “sunset” of the empire - not just fantasies of leisure analysts. The possible collapse of Gazprom in the most dramatic way can affect the country's economy: a sharp increase in the budget deficit, already overloaded with social obligations, and the equally sharp devaluation of the ruble, the course of which is maintained due to export revenue. In other words, the collapse of Gazprom may have the same consequences for the country that the drop in oil prices in the 80s of the XX century, when, as a result, the Great Power-the USSR-disappeared from the world map. True and imaginary threats analyzed The New Times