Maria Fedotova
American College Dublin
Gazprom
(Natural gas monopoly)
Introduction
In this assignment the Russian biggest monopoly of gas will be discussed. The name of this monopoly is – GAZPROM (the natural gas monopoly)
Gazprom is the biggest gas monopoly in the world and is in top 10 of all worlds’ monopolies.
The background (history), plans for growth, environmental protection, sales, company characteristics e.t.c will be explained.
What is a Monopoly?
Pure monopoly is a market structure in which one firm is the sole seller of a product or service (e.g. a local electric utility). Since the entry of additional firms is blocked, one firm constitutes the entire industry. Because the monopolist produces a unique product, it makes no effort to differentiate its product.
A year ago, Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, aspired to be the largest corporation in the world. Buoyed by high oil prices and political backing from the Kremlin, it had already achieved third place judging by market capitalization, behind Exxon Mobil and General Electric.
Today, Gazprom is deep in debt and negotiating a government bailout. Its market cap, the total value of all the company’s shares
has fallen 76% since the beginning of the year. Instead of becoming the world’s largest company, it has tumbled to 35th place. And while bailouts are increasingly common, none of Gazprom’s big private sector competitors in the West I looking for one.
That Russia’s largest state-run company needs a bailout so soon after oil hit record highs last summer is a telling postscript to a turbulent period. Once the emblem of the pride and the menace of a resurgent Russia, Gazprom has become a symbol of this oil state’s rapid economic decline.
As oil prices rose, so did their stocks. But rather than investing sufficiently in drilling and exploration, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, used them to pursue his agenda of regaining public...