Russia annexes Sakhalin-2

December 13, 2006. Foreigners will exchange their stakes in SE in return for fines levied by Russian environmental regulators, says Mikhail Korchemkin, Director of East European Gas Analysis.

Gazprom holds the keys to the kingdom

December 5, 2006. But Mikhail Korchemkin, a consultant at east European Gas Analysis, says: "Gazprom doesn't have a strategy. That's the whole point. They just want to grab everything."

Gazprom left without investment program

November 30, 2006. “And Gazprom rebuffs independent gas producers,” says Mikhail Korchemkin, Director of the East European Gas Analysis consultancy. He described Gazprom’s investment program as “smeared” while it had to be focused on a profitable gas business.

Gazprom and Eni sign 30-year up- and downstream deal

November 15, 2006. Korchemkin said: "The deal indicates that Gazprom is unlikely to introduce common, transparent rules for all players in the Russian gas scene. Cooperation with foreign partners will be based on individual preferences and the choice of Gazprom and Mr Putin."

Who in Europe will break up the new Standard Gas?

November 13, 2006. Sir, Before cutting off alternative gas supplies of Ukraine, Georgia and other former Soviet states, Gazprom managers studied the tactics of the old John Rockefeller. The latest issue of Gazprom Journal confirms that the Russian gas monopoly considers Standard Oil as a model.

Russian gas firm linked to Weldon probe courted others

October 22, 2006. A Russian gas company under FBI investigation for its links to U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon has courted him and other U.S. politicians in recent years as it expands from Russia's rough-and-tumble energy industry into a new market: the United States.

Lukoil: The Next Oil Superpower?

October 20, 2006. Russian oil giant Lukoil believes it can transform itself over the next decade into one of the world's largest fully integrated energy companies, with an enormous retail presence across the U.S. and refining capabilities and oil reserves that extend far beyond Russia.

E.ON Ruhrgas shortlisted for Shtokman

September 27, 2006. Mikhail Korchemkin, Director of East European Gas Analysis, agrees. Being the largest purchaser of Russian gas, E.ON Ruhrgas will be able to ensure stable sales, signing a long-term contract with Gazprom.

Energy Tsar

July 24, 2006. Vladimir Putin is using publicly traded Gazprom, and its monster reserves, to remake Russia. Should you own a piece of it?

Count You In, Comrade?

July 24, 2006. If you are ready to buy a share of Russia's immense commodity reserves, take a look at these companies. All but three trade as American Depositary Receipts. Still, the Russian stock market has considerably less transparency and more frictional costs than the New York Stock Exchange.

Why do shareholders ignore Gazprom's Swiss link?

July 20, 2006. Sir, Dmytro Firtash makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year, not because he can sell gas at a higher price than Gazprom (FT Investigation, July 14). His wealth is based on the discounted price of gas offered by the Russian gas monopoly.

Fitch upgrades Gazprom

July 14, 2006. Fitch’s concern about Gazprom’s high spending on gas transportation is a “polite indication” that using the services of many intermediaries increases the price of materials and services, believes Mikhail Korchemkin, Director of East European Gas Analysis.

Gazprom's 2005 figures "not bad"

July 10, 2006. Mikhail Korchemkin, managing director at the East European Gas Analysis consultancy, believes that Gazprom’s production and transportation costs in 2005 reflect the seasonal nature of the company’s operations. “In the 2004 report, the seasonal increase in gas production in the fourth quarter was accompanied by lower production costs, which cannot be,” he said.

Gazprom extends Miller's chairmanship for further 5 years

May 31, 2006. "Gazprom's major advantage is that the company can increase its cash flow by several billions of dollars at no cost - just by getting rid of numerous brokers and liquidating kickbacks and overpayments. Unfortunately, managers of Gazprom are very unlikely to do so, which is the major disadvantage of the company", Korchemkin told EGM.

Focus on Gazprom production

Mar. 15, 2006. This price, equivalent to $16.1/Km3, represents cost plus a small margin according to Mikhail Korchemkin of East European Gas Analysis. “But it was an offer Northgas could not refuse – Gazprom is using similar bullying tactics in Russia today to those of Standard Oil in the US in the 1880’s. The same thing is happening at Beregovoe where Gazprom is forcing Itera to cede control of the production company Sibneftegaz by refusing pipeline access”.

Energy security: Gas Egotism

Mar. 6, 2006. For a western reader, the letter of President Vladimir Putin to The Wall Street Journal may look like propaganda of advantages of centrally planned economy. Widening gap between supply and demand, prices affordable to exporting countries, counterproductive competition – these terms belong to the old Soviet textbooks on the political economy of socialism. However, everything does make a lot of sense if “energy egotism” is replaced by “gas egotism”.

Freeze exposes Gazprom's hidden reserves

Jan. 24, 2006. Unusually cold weather in Russia, which led to an increase in gas consumption across the country, made Gazprom appeal for help to independent producers of natural gas.

Miller's Gazprom Makes Perplexing Deal For Gas Trader

Jan. 17, 2006. Gazprom announced today that it would purchase 50% of the broker that sends the Russian giant's gas to Ukraine.

Letters to the Editor

Jan. 6, 2006. The rise of gas prices for Ukraine does not make any economic sense for Russian gas monopoly Gazprom ("The other gas crisis," Op-Ed, Dec. 29). Ukraine can increase its transit tariff and gas-storage fees to generate enough cash for buying the same volume of gas it received last year.

Ukraine-Russia: Gas

Dec. 22, 2005. The present rift between Ukraine and Russia over the price for Russian natural gas, supplied to Ukraine, and tariffs for transit piping of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine's gas transportation system may spell losses not only for Ukraine, but also for Russia, the Kyiv publication EnergoBusiness contends.

Abramovich Beyond Sibneft

Oct. 12, 2005. NEW YORK - Roman Abramovich, Russia's wealthiest person, will dispense with his largest asset through the planned sale of 73% of Sibneft to Gazprom for $13 billion.

Moscow set to diversify gas exports

Sep. 20, 2005. "The North European Gas Pipeline will help Gazprom to preserve, not strengthen, its positions on the European market. We must build additional gas pipelines, while gas consumption is on the rise. But stagnation or even reduced European energy demand are likely to set in a few years' time," Mikhail Korchemkin, the managing director of the East European Gas Analysis consulting company, noted.

Yushchenko sacks Ukrainian "gas princess" in cabinet blitz

Sep. 9, 2005. Mikhail Korchemkin, an expert in Russian gas, said that in the long term the political manoeuvring in Ukraine would have little impact on the gas sector. "In terms of natural gas, what matters are volumes, transits and production, that's it. It's very much like Russia from the Communist era through the turbulent 1990s to today - gas exports have never stopped."

Gazprom: The Model Of An Inefficient Monopoly

Jan. 24, 2005. Your story "The bigger Gazprom grows, the further Russia backslides" (European Business, Dec. 20) correctly states there was a 100% increase in costs at the Russian gas monopoly in 2001-04.