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bne Invest
May 10, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Russia’s Gazprom tightens control over investment programme in an effort to cut waste
There has been yet another shake up at Russia’s state-owned gas behemoth Gazprom, as the com- pany attempts to improve efficiency and cut down on wasteful spending.
Gazprom vice-chairman Oleg Aksiutin announced plans to reform the company's department of cor- porate expenditures, responsible for controlling over RUB1 trillion ($15.4bn) in spending on ten- ders and procurements for Gazprom and several subsidiaries, in a letter dated April 30.
“The message is clear — [Gazprom CEO Alek- sei] Miller has failed to effectively run Gazprom and enhance its competitiveness on LNG mar- kets for years. With Novatek rapidly expanding its
production base, there was likely both internal and external pressure to sack the previous head, Mikhail Sirotkin, and at least make a gesture towards improving the efficiency of spending,” BMB reports. “This is also likely linked to the
May decrees and repeated attempts to shame SOEs [state-owned enterprises] and agencies into better spending. [Alexei] Kudrin and the Audit Chamber are undoubtedly watching this closely, and will make use of [State Duma chairman Vy- acheslav] Volodin and the Duma to express their dissatisfaction if Gazprom can't get future project costs under control.”
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Troubles for Russian Sukhoi Super Jet and Aeroflot far from over
Following the deadly crash of domestic Sukhoi Super Jet 100 (SSJ-100) Russian national air carrier Aeroflot had to call off or delay another flights of the troubled airplane, Russian media outlets reported on May 8.
Regular domestic flights to Perm and Rostov-on- Don on SSJ-100 were cancelled due to unspecified technical difficulties, while a flight to Murmansk was delayed. International flights to Minsk and Riga were delayed, with the passengers of the flight to the Latvian capital reportedly alarmed over a burning smell.
A regional SSJ-100 airliner operated by Russian flag carrier Aeroflot crashed at Moscow
Sheremetyevo airport on May 5 shortly after taking off for a regular flight to Murmansk. Out of 78 people on board, 41 people reportedly did not survive the crash.
While the reasons of the crash remain to be investi- gated, the crash has opened a debate on the viability of domestically built jets despite billons of US dollars invested in the development of SSJ-100.
Reports of technical problems dogging SSJ-100 appeared before, and now could hit state carrier Aeroflot the hardest. The carrier had been pushed by the government to become the largest user of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft machine, having almost 50 SSJ's in its fleet.