EU ministers debate energy market shake-up


European Union energy ministers on Tuesday discuss a Commission strategy paper calling for greater efforts to prise open European energy markets to competition, and for EU-led negotiations with big foreign energy suppliers such as Russia.


Russia defended its record as a reliable energy supplier on Monday, as Group of Eight energy ministers and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, prepared to gather in Moscow to discuss concerns about energy security.

Alexander Medvedev, head of the export arm of Gazprom, said the natural gas monopoly’s decision, in a pricing dispute, to cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine in January, with knock-on effects for the rest of Europe, had been portrayed unfairly by the media and some international bodies.

He insisted Gazprom was a commercial organisation and not an arm of the Russian state. “Gazprom has been, is, and will be a guarantor of supplies of energy to Europe,” said Mr Medvedev. “Gazprom operates as a commercial organisation according to international rules of commerce. What happened in . . . January did not undermine the prestige of Gazprom; on the contrary it consolidated Gazprom’s prestige.”

He noted investors had been buying Gazprom shares heavily since Russia lifted restrictions in December on foreigners owning the 49 per cent of shares in the company not held by the state.

That had lifted its market capitalisation above $210bn (€176bn, £121bn), surpassing that of Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil group.

His comments came at a conference in the run-up to the meeting of G8 energy ministers in Moscow on Thursday that will discuss ways to improve global energy security – which Russia has put at the centre of its presidency of the group of leading industrialised nations.

On Friday Mr Barroso will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and convey fears across Europe about Russia’s own reliability, after its decision to turn off gas to Ukraine resulted in sharp falls in deliveries to the EU. He will discuss with Mr Putin a long-term EU-Russian partnership agreement, which he believes could be a “win-win” deal for both sides.

The head of the EU executive, speaking at a weekend meeting of EU leaders, said: “My question is whether Russia is ready to be our credible, stable, strategic partner or not? That is the question I will put to President Putin. If this is the case, we will help to make sure we have the same approach on the European Union side.”

The Europeans want Russia to give access to its pipelines to other gas suppliers and for EU companies to win contracts to help open up Russian reserves.

In exchange, EU officials have floated the idea of Russian companies winning access to “downstream” energy companies in the EU, giving them access to the lucrative retail end of a market serving 450m consumers.



EMAIL ARTICLE