{"id":14042,"date":"2014-06-04T09:17:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T09:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=14042"},"modified":"2014-06-04T09:17:32","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T09:17:32","slug":"gazprom-calls-an-european-energy-union-foolish-irrational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=14042","title":{"rendered":"Gazprom calls an European energy union foolish, irrational"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gazprom\"<\/a>The idea of a single European body that would be in charge of purchasing gas for the whole union is simply foolish and irrational, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said, suggesting the Polish PM must\u2019ve been out of his mind proposing it.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the \u201cExport and reliability of gas supplies to Europe\u201d conference in Moscow, Gazprom Deputy CEO Aleksander Medvedev said that earlier calls by the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to create a type of EU Gas Union for centralization of purchases of gas in Europe is irrational.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Tusk is a politician who did quite a lot for the development of our relations,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cAnd suddenly, as they say, he just falls out of an oak tree and says: \u2018Why don’t we introduce the purchase of gas based on the example of some kind of atomic agency, where Europe at some point purchased enriched uranium?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger believes that Tusk’s approach has no economic rationale behind it, Medvedev added.<\/p>\n

\u201cGas is a special essence,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd even Mr. Oettinger agreed that the idea is far from being economically rational. I can say a lot about why this idea is foolish,\u201d Gazprom executive added.<\/p>\n

In the Financial Times editorial dated April 21, Tusk called for measures to tackle Russia’s monopoly in gas supplies to EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cEurope should confront Russia\u2019s monopolistic position with a single European body charged with buying its gas,\u201d Tusk wrote, adding, \u201cI therefore propose an energy union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia is set to provide roughly 30 percent of growing European natural-gas demand by 2020. Even by conservative estimates, Europe by 2025 will require an additional 170 billion cubic meters of gas, and by 2035, Medvedev said that figure might constitute 225 billion cubic meters, creating an urgency for the investors to address the growing European demand for Russian gas.<\/p>\n

Medvedev said Gazprom is willing to expand its supplies to Europe, but the process is being hindered by European partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with OPAL is still not solved, which, of course, is very, very strange,\u201d said Medvedev, noting that agreements have already been signed. Under EU regulations Gazprom is only allowed to use 50 percent of capacity of the pipelines connecting the Nord Stream pipeline with the pipeline grid in Middle and Western Europe. Yet despite this, the European partners have repeatedly postponed a decision on the allocation of the remaining 50 percent capacity load.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling this a policy would be a compliment to the politicians. This politicking, I can openly say,\u201d said Medvedev .<\/p>\n

Gas giant’s executive said that the same is true for the \u2018Yamal \u2013 Europe-2\u2019 gas pipeline which will allow increasing transit capacities of gas to central Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that the project is economically efficient. But then again, based on some political issues, we have not moved forward. They do not know what they are doing. But we’ll find another way to provide for our needs. You can’t win love by force,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

As far as the EU calls for the South Stream project to be halted, Gazprom says it is ready for the worst case scenario and can complete the project without outside investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask me if I\u2019m ready for the worst case scenario, I’d say ‘Yes, we are ready,” Medvedev told journalists in Moscow.<\/p>\n

Medvedev also said that US efforts to stop Russian energy supplies to Europe to increase American market share in the region are \u201cimpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that the US, sitting high on a hill and independent of economic cooperation with us, is pushing Europe to take wild steps,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cI think that logic of European business cooperation won\u2019t allow dementia to set in. Russian export restrictions are impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: RT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of a single European body that would be in charge of purchasing gas for the whole union is simply foolish and irrational, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said, suggesting the Polish PM must\u2019ve been out of his mind proposing it. Speaking at the \u201cExport and reliability of gas supplies to Europe\u201d conference in … Continue reading “Gazprom calls an European energy union foolish, irrational”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[9007,70,9008,8783,9009,192],"class_list":["post-14042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-donald-tusk","tag-eu","tag-eu-energy-commissioner","tag-gazprom","tag-guenther-oettinger","tag-poland"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/gazprom.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14044,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042\/revisions\/14044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}