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Gazprom ups volume in row with EU over gas supplies
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 04 26 06
Russian energy giant Gazprom launched a stinging attack on the European Commission Tuesday, accusing it of backing policies that could threaten Europe's energy supplies.
The chief target was the energy charter the European Union wants Russia to sign which would guarantee supplies of Russian gas to western Europe.
The charter was originally signed in 1994 with the aim of improving cooperation between the EU and the countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
But Moscow wishes to modify it before ratification, while European states want to add a clause on the transit of energy resources.
"This document is still-born," Gazprom's deputy managing director Alexander Medvedev told a conference in London.
"It doesn't reflect market conditions."
A Gazprom source told AFP last week that the company was concerned about discussion in Brussels and other EU capitals about the possibility of applying EU anti-monopoly legislation to Gazprom to loosen its control over the sprawling gas pipeline network in Russia and other parts of the ex-Soviet Union.
This issue, the source said, was discussed earlier this year during a meeting outside Moscow between European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The action of the European administration raises serious worries," said Medvedev, accusing Brussels of creating conditions unfavourable to European energy security.
Energy security, he said, "does not only depend on the supplier but as much on the consumer.
"Unfortunately the liberalisation of the European gas market puts all the risk on the supplier."
Medvedev said that Europe "has been, is and will remain" Gazprom's largest client, with the company supplying a third of European consumption until 2015 if existing contracts are renewed, compared with a quarter at present.
But he hit out at those arguing that Europe should be less dependent on Russian gas.
Such a move was "a hidden attack on the development" of Gazprom and menaced the stability of gas deliveries, he said.
Later in an interview on the BBC World news channel, Medvedev said that the company had a list of takeover targets and it was "difficult to find a company that is not on our watch list".
He also said that Gazprom aimed to own shares in power stations in Europe.
"Some people think a weak Russia is good for the world, but we don't agree. A strong Russia and a strong Gazprom is good for the world," Medvedev said during an interview on the Hard Talk programme.
In recent days Russia has dropped heavy hints about redirecting sales to other markets if the EU took steps to obstruct its expansion plans.
Semyon Vainshtok, head of Transneft, which has a pipeline monopoly in Russia, spoke Monday of the sales perspectives opened up by the pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific and said Russia had "saturated Europe with oil."
Gazprom has also been enraged by British press reports that the government could amend takeover and merger legislation to prevent it acquiring Centrica, Britain's main gas distributor.
The European Comission has called on Gazprom to "respect its commercial undertakings".
British Trade and Industry Minister Alan Johnson Tuesday said that Britain had no intention of adopting protectionism, claiming that Britain was the world's most open economy.
AFP 04 25 06 1913 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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