as mcx gazp lse ogzd fwb gaz otc pink ogzpy industry oil and gas founded 1989 ; 27 years ago 1989 headquarters moscow russia key people viktor zubkov chairman alexey miller ceo products petroleum natural gas and other petrochemicals services gas pipeline transport revenue 5.59 trillion us 106.3 billion 2014 1 2 net income 159 billion us 3.1 billion 2014 1 2 owner russian government 50.23 % number of employees 404.400 2011 3 subsidiaries list of subsidiaries website www.gazprom.com public joint stock company gazprom russian abbreviated pao gazprom russian ipa z prom is a large russian company founded in 1989 which carries on the business of extraction production transport and sale of natural gas . the company name is a portmanteau of the russian words gazovaya promyshlennost russian gas industry . the headquarters of gazprom are in moscow . contents 1 background 2 history 2.1 inception 1989 1992 2.2 privatisation 1993 1997 2.3 tax evasion and asset stripping 1998 2000 2.4 putin s reforms 2000 2003 2.5 establishment of government control 2005 2006 2.6 contracts with china and israel 2007 2015 2.7 notable acquisitions 3 supply and reserves 3.1 production 3.2 imports from central asia 3.3 reserves 4 development and exploration 4.1 blue stream pipeline 4.2 yamal peninsula 4.3 shtokman field 4.4 khanty mansiysk autonomous area arctic shelf 4.5 exploration 5 transportation 6 sales 6.1 exports 6.2 price disputes 7 company characteristics 8 shareholders 9 subsidiaries 10 management 10.1 board of directors 10.2 management committee 10.3 shareholdings 11 sports sponsorships 12 environmental record 13 controversies 13.1 yukos oil fraud 13.2 greenpeace protest against arctic drilling 14 see also 15 references 16 sources 17 external links background edit gazprom was created in 1989 when the soviet ministry of gas industry was converted to a corporation retaining all of its assets . although it is a private company the russian government holds a majority stake in the company . gazprom is involved in the russian government s diplomatic efforts ; distortions of gas prices and access to pipelines . 4 gazprom s production fields are located around the gulf of ob in western siberia . plans have also been made to mine the yamal peninsula . gazprom s gas transport system includes 158 200 kilometres of gas trunk lines . projects include nord stream and south stream . in 2011 gazprom produced about 513.2 billion cubic metres 18.12 trillion cubic feet of natural gas more than seventeen percent of global gas production . gazprom also produced about 32.3 million tons of crude oil and nearly 12.1 million tons of gas condensate . the company has subsidiaries in industrial sectors including finance media and aviation and majority stakes in other companies . history edit inception 1989 1992 edit in 1943 during world war ii the government of the soviet union created a gas industry . in 1965 it centralized gas exploration development and distribution within the ministry of gas industry . in the 1970s and 1980s the ministry of gas industry found large natural gas reserves in siberia the ural region and the volga region . the soviet union became a major gas producer . 5 in august 1989 under the leadership of viktor chernomyrdin the ministry of gas industry was renamed the state gas concern gazprom and became the soviet union s first state run corporate enterprise . 6 7 in late 1991 when the soviet union dissolved gas industry assets were transferred to newly established national companies such as ukrgazprom and turkmengazprom . 8 gazprom kept assets located in russia and secured a monopoly in the gas sector . 7 privatisation 1993 1997 edit in december 1992 when boris yeltsin the russian president appointed chernomyrdin gazprom s chairman his prime minister the company s political influence increased . rem viakhirev took the chairmanship of gazprom s board of directors and managing committee . 7 following the decree of the president of the russian federation of 5 november 1992 and the resolution of the government of russia of 17 february 1993 gazprom became a joint stock company . gazprom began to distribute shares under the voucher method . each russian citizen received vouchers to purchase shares of formerly state owned companies . by 1994 33 % of the gazprom s shares had been bought by 747 000 members of the public mostly in exchange for vouchers . fifteen percent of the stock was allocated to gazprom employees . the state retained 40 % of the shares . that amount was gradually lowered to thirty eight percent . 7 trading of gazprom s shares was heavily regulated . foreigners were prohibited from owning more than nine percent of the shares . in october 1996 1 % of gazprom s equity was offered for sale to foreigners as global depository receipts . in 1997 gazprom offered a bond issue of us 2.5 billion . tax evasion and asset stripping 1998 2000 edit chernomyrdin as prime minister of russia ensured gazprom avoided tight state regulation . gazprom evaded taxes and the government of russia received little in dividends . gazprom managers and board members such as chernomyrdin and the gazprom chief executive officer rem viakhirev engaged in asset stripping . gazprom assets were shared amongst their relatives . itera a gas trading company also received gazprom assets . 9 in march 1998 for reasons unrelated to his activities at gazprom chernomyrdin was fired by yeltsin . 10 on 30 june 1998 chernomyrdin was made chairman of the board of directors of gazprom . putin s reforms 2000 2003 edit when in june 2000 vladimir putin became the president of russia he acted to gain control over russia s oligarchs and increase the government of russia s control in important companies through a program of national champions . 11 putin fired chernomyrdin from his position as the chairman of the gazprom board . the russian government s stock in gazprom gave putin the power to vote out vyakhirev . chernomyrdin and vyakhirev were replaced by dmitry medvedev and alexei miller . they were putin s prior employees in saint petersburg . 11 putin s actions were aided by the shareholder activism of hermitage capital management chief executive officer william browder and the former russian finance minister boris fyodorov . miller and medvedev were to stop asset stripping at gazprom and to recover losses . itera was denied access to gazprom s pipelines and came close to bankruptcy . itera agreed to return stolen assets to gazprom for a fee . 12 establishment of government control 2005 2006 edit in june 2005 gazprombank gazpromivest holding gazfond and gazprom finance b. v. subsidiaries of gazprom sold a 10.7399 % share of their stock for 7 billion to rosneftegaz ru a state owned company . some analysts said the amount paid by rosneftegaz for the stock was too low . 13 the sale was completed by 25 december 2005 . with the purchased stock and the thirty eight percent share held by the state property committee the government of russia gained control of gazprom . 14 the government of russia revoked the gazprom twenty percent foreign ownership rule and the company became open to foreign investment . 15 16 on 5 july 2006 the federal law on gas export was passed nearly unanimously by the state duma . on 5 july 2006 the law was passed by the upper house and on the 7 july 2006 by the federation council . on 18 july putin signed the new legislation and on 20 july 2006 the law was published . it gave gazprom the exclusive right to export natural gas from russia . 17 18 19 20 contracts with china and israel 2007 2015 edit the ceremony marking the opening of a lng production plant built as part of the sakhalin ii project . on 4 september 2012 the european commission a brussels based competition watchdog announced an anti trust investigation into gazprom s activities . this was based on concerns that gazprom may be abusing its dominant market position in upstream gas supply markets . 21 on 21 may 2014 in shanghai gazprom and the china national petroleum corporation made a contract worth 400 billion over thirty years . the contract was for gazprom to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to china beginning in 2018 . 22 23 in august 2014 construction began with pipes for the power of siberia pipeline delivered to lensk yakutia . 24 on 19 october 2015 russian president vladimir putin and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu agreed to allow gazprom to develop the leviathan gas fields with major concessions from israel . 25 notable acquisitions edit in april 2001 gazprom acquired ntv russia s only nationwide state independent television station from vladimir gusinsky s company media most holdings . 26 27 28 in 2002 the gazprom subsidiary gazprom media acquired all of gusinsky s shares in companies held by media most . 29 in september 2005 gazprom bought 72.633 percent of the oil company sibneft for 13.01 billion . sibneft was renamed gazprom neft . the purchase was aided by a 12 billion loan . gazprom became russia s largest company . 30 on the day of the deal the company worth was valued at 69.7 billion us 123.2 billion . in december 2006 gazprom signed an agreement with royal dutch shell mitsui and mitsubishi to take over fifty percent plus one share of sakhalin energy . 31 in june 2007 tnk bp a subsidiary of bp plc agreed to sell its stake in kovykta field in siberia to gazprom after the government of russia questioned bp s right to export gas from russia . 32 33 34 35 on 23 june 2007 the governments of russia and italy signed a memorandum of understanding towards a joint venture between gazprom and eni spa to construct a 558 mile 900 km gas pipeline to carry 1.05 trillion cubic feet 30 km3 gas per year from russia to europe . this south stream pipeline would extend under the black sea to bulgaria with a south fork to italy and a north fork to hungary . 36 37 38 on 1 december 2007 during a visit to turkey putin said the project would not proceed and 63 billion cubic metres per year bcm y of gas would be shipped to turkey instead of bulgaria . bulgaria was being sued by the european union for signing a contract with russia which was not aligned with european union regulations.the president of bulgaria rosen plevneliev pressured the european union and russia to quickly resolve the matter . 39 40 in late november 2013 gazprom expanded its media interests by acquiring profmedia from vladimir potanin . 41 in june 2014 gazprom negotiated with the international petroleum investment company ipic of abu dhabi over a 24.9 percent stake in the austrian oil and gas firm omv . 42 supply and reserves edit production edit in 2011 gazprom produced 513.17 billion cubic metres 18.122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas which was 17 percent of the worldwide production and 83 percent of russian production . of this amount the yamburg subsidiary produced 41 percent urengoy 23.6 percent nadym 10.9 percent noyabrsk 9.3 percent and others 15.2 percent . in addition the company produced 32.28 million tons of oil and 12.07 million tons of gas condensate . 43 44 45 gazprom s main fields are located in the nadym pur taz region near the gulf of ob in yamalo nenets autonomous okrug in western siberia . the three largest fields are medvezhe urengoy and yamburg . after more than twenty years of production the fields are now in decline . production from the fields has decreased by twenty to twenty five bcm per year . 46 47 the production at zaporliarnoe gazprom s fourth largest filed increased until 2004 offsetting the decline in the other fields . 48 since 2004 gazprom has maintained production by activating new smaller fields