Derek Brower, an energy journalist and former contributor to this blog, has a piece in the new edition of Petroleum Economist providing a “report card” on the recently disappointing performance of the once unsinkable Gazprom. Excerpts below:

GAZPROM has become notorious for corporate bombast, but in Deauville, France, last June, it exceeded itself with a series of statements that now look comical. The Russian gas monopoly would become the world’s first trillion-dollar company by market capitalisation within the next seven to 10 years, the company’s boss, Alexei Miller, told a press briefing. Oil prices would double to $250 a barrel in 2008, he added gleefully. European gas prices, which are indexed against crude prices, could rise to as high as $1,500/’000 cubic metres (cm) by the end of the year, the firm suggested. Gazprom was sitting pretty.