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Main page > Comments > Fuel & Energy > EU, Gazprom to draw up roadmap EU, Gazprom to draw up roadmapRussia’s largest company Gazprom and the European Union are developing a partnership roadmap until 2020, the giant’s chief Alexei Miller said. He is convinced that beneficial bilateral cooperation is only possible if it is underpinned by long-term contracts. This issue will top the agenda of the Russia-EU summit this week. Gazprom is still working on finding a common ground with the EU authorities. Despite strong opposition and sometimes even outright sabotage as regards Russian projects in Europe, Gazprom hopes to persuade its EU partners of the need to maintain long-term partnership. Placing stakes on the development of the spot market alone may cost a lot for the region’s countries. Current developments in the Middle East and Northern Africa are yet more proof of this. Commodity prices predictably soar when there is a threat of suspended oil and gas production and supplies. The EU should therefore reconsider its policy in ensuring the security of supplies, Alexei Miller believes. “I think the question of reliability and stability, and security of supplies from the Middle East and North Africa should be analyzed and considered with a much greater meticulousness than they were before these events.” Russia’s gas giant is ready to work out a roadmap with the EU authorities. This fundamental document of bilateral relations in the gas sphere will enable the Russian side to make long-term investment and industrial plans, as well as provide for stable gas supplies to European consumers on transparent and mutually beneficial terms. Such view was brought forward by director of the National Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov in an interview with the Voice of Russia. "The process of drawing up a roadmap is an attempt to understand that in the long run, Europe is interested in us as a reliable supplier and we will need Europe too. Proceeding from this fact, the two sides should sit down and try to reconcile their points of view. The situation we have been witnessing over the last two years is absolutely abnormal, with politicians constantly intervening into a well-functioning business and thus endangering European energy security. The EU should guarantee a particular level of demand for Russian gas for the next 15-20 years. And Russia, in its turn, should provide assurances of producing that amount," Konstantin Simonov said. However, one of the hurdles along the path to agreeing a roadmap between Moscow and Brussels is the so-called “third energy package”. The document provides for the complete liberalization of the EU gas and electric power market. To be more precise, it directly forbids Gazprom to own the gas pipelines through which it pumps hydrocarbons to Europe. Yet while forcing the Russian company to abide by the package’s terms, Brussels makes an exception for the Nabucco project lobbied by the EU. Russia refers to this as a double-standard policy. Gazprom plans to settle this issue and secure a special status for its South Stream pipeline network designed to deliver Russian gas to Southern Europe across the Black Sea bed. The project may involve more participants in the nearest future, Alexei Miller said, referring to the French EdF Company and Germany’s Wintershall holding, which are growing increasingly more interested in the South Stream pipeline. By Vesnovskaya Maria The Voice of Russia, February 22, 2011 |
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