Bloomberg: Gazprom Biggest Loser as Shale Gas Upends World Markets

The natural-gas boom reshaping America is rocking Russia, where state producer OAO Gazprom is slow to react and at risk of becoming the world’s biggest loser from the new technology to drill shale rock.

The U.S. no longer needs Russia’s gas, leaving President Vladimir Putin fighting to salvage Gazprom’s $20 billion Shtokman project in the Arctic. China, the biggest energy consumer, is exploring its own shale reserves and hesitating to accept a pipeline from Russia. Gazprom’s shipments fell about 14 percent so far in 2012, and the stock’s has lost 8.9 percent.

Russia, with about $13 trillion of gas deposits, has the most at stake in the energy revolution that’s blasting shale from Pennsylvania to China in rocks impossible to drill just a decade ago. While Gazprom remains the gas biggest producer, the export monopoly is set for its toughest market since the Soviet Union’s fall in 1991 after letting rivals like Exxon Mobil Corp. take the lead in a technology that’s eroding its sales.  MORE