Russian energy giant Gazprom has suffered its biggest loss in decades after gas sales more than halved due to the effects of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. The group lost 629 billion rubles, equivalent to 6.9 billion dollars or 47.6 billion kroner in 2023 after sales to Europe, the company’s main source of revenue, plummeted.

This is according to the Financial Times.

Gazprom’s revenues fell by almost 30% year-on-year to 8.5 billion rubles and gas sales fell from 8.4 billion rubles to 4.1 billion rubles.

The company’s Moscow-listed shares fell by more than 4.4% on the news.

According to analysts, the poor result shows that Gazprom has failed to adapt to the loss of European markets.

Gazprom’s revenue from gas sales outside Russia fell from 7.3 billion rubles in 2022 to 2.9 billion rubles in 2023, which, according to analysts, is mainly due to the loss of the European market.

Meanwhile, Europe has managed to find alternative sources of gas as Russia’s share of Europe’s gas imports has fallen by 40% to 8% in 2023, according to EU data.

The result shows that Gazprom’s core business of selling gas to Europe has become a loss-making burden that is only partially offset by profits from oil sales.

Gazprom’s other export businesses increased slightly last year, but still only accounted for 5 to 10% of losses in the European market.