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Russia rejects 'lies' over gas deal with Algeria
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 01 31 06A Kremlin official on Tuesday rejected as "lies" media claims that Moscow would like to create an OPEC-style cartel to supply the European Union with gas, after it signed a cooperation deal with Algeria.
"They are consciously writing lies by drawing attention in this way to the subject that concerns Europeans," President Vladimir Putin's adviser on relations with the EU Sergei Yastrzhembsky said on the Vesti television channel.
"The partnership between Russia and Algeria is surrounded by rumours, assumptions, hypotheses and dark scenarios," Yastrzhembsky said.
He was referring to the European reaction -- including articles in the Russian press -- to an agreement signed between his country and Algeria, two of the top gas suppliers to Europe, to boost cooperation on piping and selling hydrocarbons.
Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko visited Algeria earlier this month to discuss joint development and energy infrastructure and resources.
The visit led EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs to raise concerns about the possible creation of a monopoly by the two countries. He demanded they explain their intentions and the consequences for European customers.
The idea of a cartel-in-the-making was again raised by Russian newspapers Tuesday after reported comments by the supreme leader of gas-rich Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a visit to Iran by the secretary of Russia's national security council.
The Iranian leader was quoted in the Kommersant newspaper as saying: "Our two countries, helping each other, could create an organisation for cooperation in the gas sphere similar to OPEC" (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries).
Yastrzhembsky insisted there was no "trick" in Russian relations with Algeria.
"The emotional sharpness of the European media reaction to the activation of relations between Russia and Algeria is really not justified," Yastrzhembsky told a news conference earlier on Tuesday.
"There's no trick for Europe in the development of relations between Russia and Algeria."
Russia's Gazprom and Algeria's Sonatrach energy companies are discussing "the possibility of joint extraction and transportation of gas, possibly exchange of assets -- the kind of cooperation that Gazprom long ago began developing with European companies," he said.
"Such a nervous reaction is mainly connected with competitive notions of the danger of competition from Gazprom and others, that Russian companies will act more effectively in Algeria than European companies."
Meanwhile, Yastrzhembsky said that a Russia-EU summit would take place on May 17-18 in the southern Russian city of Samara.
Russia has again had to defend its role as a major energy supplier to the EU after a row between Moscow and transit country Belarus interrupted oil deliveries at the start of the month.
AFP 30 2146 GMT 01 07
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