Gazprom
keen for large slice of British energy market: report
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 01 18 06
- State-run Russian gas giant Gazprom is planning an assault on
the British market and aims to provide 20 percent of the country's
gas within a decade, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
In an interview with the newspaper, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander
Medvedev said one way of increasing its share of the British market
could be to take over an existing domestic energy provider like
Scottish Power.
"We now have a good wholesale business in the (United Kingdom)
with big industrial customers and power stations. We are aiming
to secure 20 percent of the market by 2015," he was quoted
as saying.
"To start from scratch in retail would be impossible -- but
through acquistions, yes, we do not rule this out... We are looking
at such opportunities now.
"We are not afraid of such size as Scottish Power but we
have no concrete plans at this moment."
Medvedev said Britain, increasingly reliant on overseas energy
supplies due to its dwindling North Sea oil and gas reserves,
had nothing to fear from sourcing energy from Gazprom or a country
like Russia.
Gazprom was a key mover in dispute earlier this month about gas
supplies between Russia and Ukraine, briefly cutting supplies
to to Kiev because of the failure to reach agreement on proposed
market price hikes.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has faced repeated
calls from business leaders among others to address the country's
future energy needs because of the decline in output from its
offshore platforms.
For consumers, prices of gas and other forms of energy have been
rising, with a number of suppliers introducing above-inflation
price hikes on January 1 this year.
Blair announced a study into future supplies last year. It is
widely expected to favour resurrecting the country's mothballed
nuclear power programme combined with renewable forms of energy
like wind power.
AFP
01/17/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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