That's how gas is sold: Gazprom sells a large petrochemical complex in Bashkiria
Gazprom intends to sell Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, a large petrochemical complex in Bashkiria, by the end of the year, Izvestia has learned. The buyer is the Roschem holding, the transaction amount is estimated at 250-270 billion rubles. It is of strategic importance for the holding, and the state-owned company will be able to cover losses associated with a decrease in gas exports. According to the results of the first nine months of 2025, its net loss under RAS amounted to 170.3 billion rubles. How the deal will affect the market is described in the Izvestia article.
What is known about the deal
Gazprom is selling the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat petrochemical enterprise in Bashkiria to the Russian Chemical Holding company. This was reported to Izvestia by a source close to Roshim, and confirmed by two more interlocutors familiar with the plans of both companies. The deal is worth 250-270 billion rubles, one of them said. The organizations intend to close it by the end of 2025. Gazprom's information department declined to comment. A representative of Roschem did not respond to a request from the editorial board.
Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, according to its own data, is the largest petrochemical complex in Russia, founded in 1948. It produces more than 150 types of products from hydrocarbon raw materials, including gasoline, diesel and petroleum fuels, various polyethylene, styrene, carbamide, ammonia and others. By the end of 2024, the company's revenue amounted to 302.8 billion rubles, which is 14% more than in 2023, according to RAS reports. Net profit for the same period decreased almost sevenfold to 4.4 billion.
In August 2025, the Bashkir company changed its owner, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Gazprom Pererabotka transferred control over it to Gazprom and RusGazDobycha (RGD) joint venture Gazprom Dobycha Tambey, which is developing the gas field of the same name in Yamal.
The state-owned company is conducting the transaction in the face of a deterioration in its own financial performance. By the end of 2024, the net loss exceeded 1 trillion rubles, the worst value in the last 25 years of operation, Ekaterina Kosareva, managing partner of VMT Consult, recalled. In January – September 2025, this figure amounted to 170.3 billion, which is 45% less than in the same period a year earlier, according to the organization's RAS reports.
Large-scale modernization programs require investment funds, which Gazprom currently does not have freely available, Ekaterina Kosareva noted. According to her, the sale of part of the assets will allow the organization to optimize its portfolio and focus on its core areas. First of all, to cover losses related to the reduction in gas demand due to the loss of the European market, a source familiar with the plans of the state-owned company told Izvestia.
The share of Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat's revenue in the total revenues of the oil and gas holding by the end of 2024 was about 5%, said Tamara Safonova, CEO of NAANS-Media. At the same time, despite the high-tech equipment of the Bashkir complex, its contribution to the all-Russian processing of petrochemical raw materials does not exceed 2%, the expert added.
The sale of the asset may be partly related to the desire to reduce Gazprom's debt, which is now "quite significant," says Sergey Kaufman, an analyst at Finam Financial Group. In addition, the sale may be related to charges against former top managers of the company, Alexei Mityushov and Kirill Seleznev, he added. In March, the Prosecutor General's Office accused them of withdrawing at least 150 billion rubles from Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat. In May, a court in St. Petersburg recovered several businesses from them.
What is the interest of Roschem in Gazprom's asset
Roschem has a strategic interest in this asset, a source close to the holding told Izvestia. According to him, the group is now increasing its market presence in order to become an "industry leader in key areas." She will also receive an experimental platform for the development of low-tonnage chemical products based on Bashkir facilities, Ekaterina Kosareva added.
Roschem was established in February 2021 and was called Russian Hydrogen until June 2023. The company produces various chemical compounds — titanium dioxide, iron sulfate and sulfuric acid, according to its website. By the end of 2024, revenue amounted to 22.3 billion rubles, which is 33% more than a year earlier, according to RAS reports. Net profit for that period increased almost 15 times, to 1.1 billion. The holding company is 100% owned by the closed-end mutual investment fund "Kvint", its beneficiaries are not disclosed, according to data from SPARK-Interfax.
Over the past few years, Roschem has acquired several major players in the market for a total amount of more than 50 billion rubles. For example, in 2023— the manufacturer of sodium sulfate "Kuchuksulfate" in the Altai Territory. The holding also received shares in companies operating the Dalnegorsky GOK in Primorsky Krai, Russia's only producer of boroproducts from its own mineral raw materials. In the fall of 2024, he bought Metafrax Chemicals, the largest methanol producer in the Perm Region, and Volzhsky Orgsintez, a producer of carbon disulfide and sodium sulfate in the Volgograd Region. Both organizations were acquired from the Federal Property Management Agency at auction at a starting price of about 38 billion rubles.
This summer, the holding company bought 57.43% of the Bashkir Soda Company (BSK) from the state, which it received into trust management in April 2023 by decree of President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, 11.7% of the sold package were transferred to the management of the Bashkiria authorities. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. In August, the head of the Federal Property Management Agency, Vadim Yakovenko, at a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, said that the sale price was about 17 billion rubles.
Prospects for the development of Roschem
Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat's broad diversification will allow Roschim to discover new markets for high-value-added products, said Sergey Frolov, Managing Partner of NEFT Research. The acquisition of the Bashkir enterprise will open up the opportunity to consolidate core petrochemical assets on a cluster basis and strengthen its position in the global market, Tamara Safonova noted.
After the deal, the holding's share will grow significantly in the styrene segment and in the market of certain types of polymers, said Dmitry Kasatkin, Managing Partner of Kasatkin Consulting. In these areas, the company will be among the largest in the country, he said. It will not become a leader in oil refining, since the volume of about 10 million tons per year "does not change the balance of power by itself," the expert noted. According to him, the holding will move to a new "weight category", developing an end-to-end chain from raw materials to finished products.
At the same time, such a "diverse portfolio" of the Bashkir company creates difficulties due to the need to form a complex sales system, said Sergey Frolov. For example, over the past 10 years, Sibur has withdrawn from all businesses that it considered unpromising and non-core (fertilizers, methanol, tires, as well as fuel components and aromatics), he noted. In the future, Roschem may also switch from asset purchases to optimizing its product portfolio, the expert believes. So far, the holding is not able to replace Sibur as an industry leader, but it is possible on the horizon of several years at such a pace of expansion, admits Sergey Kaufman.
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