Pursuant to Gazprom’s approved budget (financial plan), the overall amount of investments in 2017 will stand at RUB 910.67 billion, with RUB 625.455 billion intended for construction projects, RUB 0.125 billion for the acquisition of non-current assets, and RUB 285.09 billion for long-term financial investments.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Rainer Seele, Chairman of the OMV Executive Board, signed the Basic Agreement regarding the asset swap. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Hans Jörg Schelling, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Austria, and Anatoly Yanovsky, Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia.

Gazprom joins Lukoil PJSC and Zarubrezhneft OAO in Russia, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in Tehran at the signing ceremony. Salbali Karimi, managing director of the Iranian Central Oil Fields Co., and Alexander Dyukov, chairman of the management board and chief executive officer of Gazprom Neft, signed the memorandum of understanding.

India, the world's third-biggest energy consumer, is striving to grow its natural gas use and shift away from oil and coal for power and industry, but its lack of gas import infrastructure is stymieing faster adoption of the cleaner-burning fuel.

Gazprom has started to vary its marketing strategy by using a variety of methodologies, including selling gas via the traditional long term contracts, via auctions, via Gazprom Marketing & Trading and via Wingas (its 100% owned European utility). As a result it has gained flexibility (that was formerly in the hands of the European utilities) and can adapt much faster to market changes.

Gazprom has terminated a shareholder agreement for Nord Stream 2, a joint venture to build a pipeline between Russia and Germany, circumventing Poland and other countries, Russian press agency TASS has reported.

Gazprom’s supplies to the German market continued to grow, rising 23 per cent this September and 20.4 per cent this October versus the corresponding months of 2015.

The state-controlled Russian energy group will yield to EU demands on how it sells gas in Europe in order to escape a penalty for past anti-competitive behaviour. The bargain is likely to anger eastern and Baltic states that have campaigned for a tougher approach.

Pursuant to the adjusted Investment Program for 2016, the overall amount of investments will stand at RUB 853.01 billion, up RUB 11.011 billion versus the Investment Program approved in December 2015. Accordingly, the amount of long-term financial investments will equal RUB 173.159 billion, with RUB 10.399 billion intended for the acquisition of non-current assets.

In 2015, Russian gas exports to Austria rose 11.5 per cent versus 2014. From January 1 through October 10, 2016, Russian gas supplies to Austria totaled 4.18 billion cubic meters, which was 23.8 per cent higher than in the same period of 2015.