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Oil cut off destroys confidence in Russian supply says Merkel
By Guy Jackson
AFP
BERLIN
Petroleumworld.com 01 10 07German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that Moscow's sudden suspension of oil deliveries westwards through the Druzhba pipeline in Belarus destroyed confidence in Russia as an energy supplier.
"It is not acceptable when there are no consultations about such moves," Merkel said when asked about Russia's reliability as an energy partner.
"That repeatedly destroys confidence and you cannot build cooperation based on true mutual trust in this way," she told reporters in Berlin after talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Germany's six-month EU presidency.
Germany has been Russia's closest partner in the European Union.
Barroso urged Russia and Belarus to find a quick solution to their energy dispute.
"It is unacceptable for either supplier or transit countries to take measures that impact on partner countries without consultation," he said.
Negotiations between Russia and Belarus started in Moscow Tuesday the day after the Russian oil supply via the Druzhba pipeline was cut, Interfax news agency
reported.
The pipeline crosses Belarus to the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
Belarus is insisting that Russia pay a 45-dollar-per-tonne fee for oil transiting through the pipeline across its territory, but Moscow says the fee is illegal. Both countries accuse each other of provoking the halt in supplies.
About 12.5 percent of the oil the EU consumes is transited through the pipeline from Russia, which provides half of the 27-nation bloc's oil imports.
Merkel earlier announced plans to travel to Moscow on January 21 for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about a stalled treaty on political, economic and energy cooperation with the EU.
The German chancellor noted that the EU had a "strategic partnership" with Russia.
"And when we look back on the last decades we see that even during the Cold War Russia has been a stable supplier of energy," she said.
The current oil row follows a New Year's dispute over a more than doubling of Russian gas prices for Belarus, also prompting fears of a knock-on effect for western Europe.
And it comes after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Ukraine last winter, prompting EU policymakers to begin debating ways to reduce over-reliance on energy from Russia.
The interruption of Russian crude oil deliveries to Germany and Poland presents no risk to European supplies in the short term, the European Commission assured in Brussels on Monday.
A spokesman said Germany had about 130 days of oil reserves and Poland had 70 days worth.
Barroso said that the Oil Supply Group, a team of European experts, would meet later this week to consider any measures which may be required.
The European Commission will on Wednesday outline plans to reduce dependence on foreign energy while increasing competition in the market. It will also announce proposals to cut greenhouse gases.
Germany is opposed to one of the commission's key proposals to encourage tougher competition, namely that major energy companies "unbundle" their networks from supply and generation operations.
When asked about Germany's position, Merkel said at the press conference: "Each member state is in its way a challenge to the commission."
Merkel has made securing energy supplies to Europe one of the aims of her EU presidency.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for his part, called for a rapid resumption of supplies after a telephone conversation with Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian deputy prime minister.
"We are asking both parties to respect their delivery commitments," Steinmeier said, adding a "rapid solution was needed".
He said that energy relations between Russia and Europe should be permanent and reliable, stressing that Germany was going to push for improved communication on energy between Russia and the EU during Berlin's presidency.
AFP 09 2014 GMT 01 07
Copyright© 2001 AFP.All Rights Reserved.
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