Gazprom Proposes Record Dividend

With its major infrastructure projects now past their peak in terms of capital requirements, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is proposing a record dividend for shareholders, it said April 11.

In view of the strong financial and operating results achieved in the reporting year, the management committee is proposing that the dividends should go up to rubles 246.9bn ($38.4bn), or rubles 10.43/each, an increase of 29.7% on the payout for 2017, it said. This dividend amount sets an all-time record in Gazprom's history, it said, and is to be voted on at the company's annual general meeting in St Petersburg June 28. The government is the majority stake holder.

Among its projects is Nord Stream 2, planned to be operational by the end of this year but now in a race against time. Countering the flow of negative news over the last few weeks surrounding the progress of construction work in the light of the Danish delay to the route selection process, Gazprom said April 11 that 1,000 km of the line have been laid in Finnish, Swedish and German waters. Twenty vessels are engaged on the project, with nearly 1,300 people working on board, it said.

The other two gas export projects are TurkStream 1 and 2, now both substantially complete; and the Power of Siberia pipeline to China. Next up is the 45bn m3/yr gas processing and liquefaction project planned for the Baltic Sea region, for which a final investment decision has not been announced in so many words.

However the Anglo-Dutch major Shell this week said it had abandoned plans to take part in Baltic LNG with Gazprom and possibly other foreign investors, in the wake of Gazprom's decision to build an integrated processing and liquefaction project with another partner, also Russian-owned.