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New EU rules would force Gazprom out of Baltic pipeline project: Kroes
AFP
TALLINN
Petroleumworld.com 06 15 07Russia's Gazprom would have to pull out of a controversial project to lay a pipeline in the Baltic Sea if new rules on energy companies are passed by the European Union, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said here Friday.
"Gazprom should sell its stake in the Baltic Sea pipeline and this will happen sooner or later," Kroes said in Estonia, which, with its Baltic neighbours and Poland, was bypassed by the project to build a pipeline on the floor of the Baltic Sea, connecting Russia's gas fields with Germany.
"I hope the EU will adopt new regulations that state that companies producing energy and distributing energy should be strictly separated and have different ownership," Kroes said.
"EU regulations should apply to Gazprom as well as any other company from non-EU countries in the same way as they apply to EU companies," she told a news conference held jointly with Estonian Economic Affairs and Communications Minister, Juhan Parts.
Gazprom and German firms EON and BASF signed a deal in 2005, with the blessing of the two countries' governments, to build a 1,200 kilometre (720 mile) underwater pipeline, which will initially deliver 27.5 billion cubic metres of Russian gas a year to Germany, rising to 55 billion.
Stretching under the Baltic Sea from Vyborg near St Petersburg to Greifswald on the northeastern coast of Germany, the pipeline, which is projected to come onstream by 2010, woulc be the first to allow Russia to directly export gas to Germany.
The Baltic states and Poland have been angered by the project because it was set up without consulting them and also because it bypasses them, depriving them of potentially lucrative transit fees.
The four countries have been joined by the Nordic states in voicing concern that the pipeline poses environmental and national security risks.
Parts said Estonia welcomed "EU efforts that would force Russia to behave in line with normal EU market rules."
"If you look at how Gazprom has acted on an international level, playing
with gas prices in different regions, we see that their current activities are not in line with the rules of fair competition, and also pose some security threats," Parts told AFP,
He said he was "convinced that sooner or later the EU will force Gazprom to sell its share in the Baltic Sea pipeline project."
"All EU members should be more active and jointly address matters related to global energy security. We must build up a system that would disable the use of energy as a political tool," he said.
AFP 15 1450 GMT 06 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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