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http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/04/20/gazpromthreat.shtml

Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday,
April 19, that if European Union countries continue to block its international ambitions
it could redirect gas supplies to other markets. The move comes after the British
Financial Times newspaper reported that the British government wanted to legislatively
block Gazprom's acquisition of Britain's biggest gas supplier Centrica.

In a statement after a meeting between Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive, and EU
ambassadors, the company said: "It is necessary to note that attempts to limit Gazprom's
activities in the European market and politicize questions of gas supply, which in fact are of
an entirely economic nature, will not lead to good results."

As MosNews reported earlier this week, the Financial Times learned that the U.K.
government had considered changing merger rules to block a potential takeover of Centrica,
Britain's biggest gas supplier, by Gazprom.

Gazprom's CEO met ambassadors of the 25 EU states in Moscow on Tuesday, April 18,
to discuss Gazprom's relations with Europe, and insisted the world's largest gas producer
understood its responsibilities as supplier of a quarter of the EU's gas.

Wednesday's statement by Gazprom threatened to devote more of the company's supplies
to fast-growing markets elsewhere if plans to expand in Europe - where it has ambitions
to move into downstream gas distribution - were thwarted. "It should not be forgotten
that we are actively familiarizing ourselves with new markets, such as North America and
China. Gas producers in central Asia are also paying attention to the Chinese market.
This is for a reason: competition for energy resources is growing," it said.

Gazprom said that, while it would fulfill its current contracts with European clients,
any future relationship with these countries should take into account the Russian company's
ambitions to move into the downstream markets. Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for
Gazprom, told the Financial Times: "We just want European countries to understand that
we have other alternatives in terms of gas sales. We have a fast-growing Chinese market,
and a market for liquefied natural gas in the U.S. If the European Union wants our gas, it
has to consider our interests as well."

Gazprom's threats follow an outline agreement between Russia and China to supply
the Chinese market with gas from Western Siberia, which is also the main source
of gas for Europe. Given that Gazprom's reserves have been static for the past five
years, the supply of gas to China will decrease the volume of gas available to European countries.

Gazprom has made no secret of its ambition to supply up to 20 percent of the U.K.'s gas by 2015.

Other European countries have also expressed concerns about Gazprom's plans to
take a share in their domestic markets. The EU earlier indicated it would be prepared
to let Gazprom into its downstream market if Russia were to liberalize access to gas
pipelines to other countries and independent producers - a prospect that Gazprom has ruled out.
,,,,,,,

Her er et godt kort over gas nettet i europa
http://www.inogate.org/en/images/maps/gas_map_big.gif
og olie nettet http://www.inogate.org/en/images/maps/oil_map_big.gif


Jan Rasmussen


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http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/04/24/overfed.shtml

Russia's planned oil pipeline to Asia will help cut deliveries to Europe,
which is currently being oversupplied with Russian crude, the head of
Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft told a newspaper, the Reuters news agency reported.

"We have overfed Europe with crude. And every single economic
manual says that excessive supplies depress prices," Semyon Vainshtok
told the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta in an interview published on Monday.

"As yet we cannot reduce supplies, as all our exports are going to Europe.
But as soon as we divert (flows) to China, South Korea, Australia and Japan,
that will immediately take away crude from our European colleagues," he added.

Vainshtok has repeatedly said that building a pipeline to Asia would help diversify
Russian oil flows and cut discounts on the country's mainstay Urals crude blend
in European markets.

His new comments are likely to come under much closer scrutiny after another
Russian monopoly, state gas behemoth Gazprom, shocked Europe last week by
saying it would supply gas elsewhere if its expansion in Europe was blocked.

The European Union said Gazprom's threats only confirmed Europe's views
that it needed to diversify its energy imports.

Russian critics say Gazprom's comments mean the Kremlin is increasingly
active in using energy as a weapon in a situation when Europe relies on Moscow
for a quarter of its gas needs and Russia produces every ninth oil barrel in the world.

Vainshtok said Transneft planned to use a shipping fee of $38 per ton of crude
oil on the Asian-Pacific pipeline route to make it competitive with current fees
paid on the route to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.

The $11.5-billion pipeline will ship 600,000 barrels per day at the first stage,
mainly to China, with supplies rising to 1.6 million bpd at the second stage,
when a big terminal is build on the Russian Pacific coast.

Vainshtok said his firm would borrow 13.4 billion roubles ($487.1 million)
from state bank Sberbank and another $2 billion via a five-year loan from
Western banks. The firm had previously planned to borrow up to $6 billion
from Western banks, led by Barclays.
-----


Jan Rasmussen