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Russia’s Gazprom to Make Washing Machines as $10 Billion Losses Push It Out of the Gas Business

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Photo of Vlad Litnarovych
Vlad Litnarovych
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Russia’s Gazprom to Make Washing Machines as $10 Billion Losses Push It Out of the Gas Business
A fisherman walks on the ice of the Gulf of Finland against the backdrop of the Lakhta Business Center, where the headquarters of Gazprom is located in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 22, 2025. (Source: Getty Images)

After losing nearly 60% of its gas exports due to the energy standoff with Europe—and failing to secure a new contract with China—Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom  is pivoting to an unlikely new venture: making home appliances, Russian outlet Kommersant reported on April 15.

Gazprom’s subsidiary, AO Gazprom Household Systems, plans to begin producing washing machines and refrigerators in 2025. The production line will be housed at a former Bosch plant near St. Petersburg, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin handed over to Gazprom for “temporary management” in the summer of 2023.

Gazprom aims to restart the facility by this summer. Before the full-scale war in Ukraine, the plant had produced over one million appliances annually. However, insiders told Kommersant that the company may face hurdles related to software—Bosch pulled out of Russia and revoked its software licenses when it exited the country.

Gazprom Household Systems already manufactures gas stoves. Last year, the company reported revenues of ₽6.6 billion (about $71 million) and a net profit of ₽140 million (around $1.5 million).

Meanwhile, Gazprom’s core gas business continues to bleed money. The company reported a loss of ₽1 trillion (roughly $10.8 billion) under Russian accounting standards. In 2023, for the first time in 25 years, Gazprom posted a net loss under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), amounting to ₽629 billion (approximately $6.8 billion)—a record loss for the Russian energy leader.

After cutting gas supplies to most of Europe following the invasion of Ukraine, Gazprom saw its exports fall to their lowest level since 1985. In 2023, volumes dropped to just 69 billion cubic meters, down from pre-war peaks of 200 billion. Exports slightly rebounded last year to 81 billion cubic meters, according to estimates by BCS, but remained just a fraction of pre-war levels.

The Kremlin had pinned hopes on China as a replacement market, proposing a fivefold increase in gas exports and the construction of a new pipeline—Power of Siberia 2—to supplement the original route that began operating in 2019. However, after more than two years of negotiations, Chinese President Xi Jinping declined to sign the anticipated deal.

Facing mounting losses, Gazprom began large-scale layoffs at its headquarters earlier this year, with plans to cut 40% of staff—around 1,500 employees—according to sources cited by Reuters in March. The company is also reportedly considering selling off prime real estate, including its export division’s ornate headquarters styled after an Italian palazzo.

Earlier, reports emerged that Russia’s oil earnings dropped to their lowest levels since mid-2023, with exports declining for the third consecutive week and prices falling amid the US-China trade war.

Crude exports from all Russian ports fell to 3.13 million barrels per day in the four weeks leading up to April 13, their lowest since February, about 320,000 barrels per day below the recent peak. The gross value of these shipments dropped by around $80 million, or 6%, to $1.29 billion per week, the lowest since July 2023.

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Gazprom is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. In January 2022, Gazprom displaced Sberbank from the first place in the list of the largest companies in Russia by market capitalization.