Russian giant Gazprom expects a nearly 40% drop in earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) this year, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

The Russian giant said EBITDA will be around 2.2 trillion rubles ($24.3 billion) in 2023, up from 3.6 trillion rubles in 2022.

The results include gas, oil and electricity companies.

Like many Russian companies, Gazprom no longer publishes full results after Russia invaded Ukraine and the West imposed sanctions against Moscow.

Gazprom’s gas exports, its main source of revenue, were not directly sanctioned, but exports nearly halved last year to 101 billion cubic meters (bcm) after a sharp drop in sales to Europe, which used to be Gazprom’s main market.

Gazprom was unable to compensate for the loss of customers in Europe

Gazprom’s board of directors also approved the investment program for 2024 for 1.570 billion rubles in accordance with the plans presented in November. Gazprom is one of the largest contributors to the Russian budget.

Gazprom posted record profits in 2021 as the resumption of industrial production around the world following pandemic lockdowns led to a sharp increase in demand for natural gas. Some European officials suspected at the time that Russia and Gazprom had artificially limited supplies to Europe to keep prices high.

But at the end of last year, Russian natural gas exports hit their lowest level since the beginning of this century, despite the diversion of supplies to markets such as China and India.

This is because Russia lacks the infrastructure to consistently supply large volumes of gas to its eastern markets after most European countries stopped buying energy from the country led by Vladimir Putin.

A significant part of the planned investments of Gazprom and other Russian energy companies is aimed at expanding delivery capacities to Asia.