A top executive with Russian natural gas company Gazprom warned Europe against energy market reforms that would disrupt long-term supply agreements or infringe on companies' rights to control their own pipeline infrastructure.
Long-term contracts covering decades should not give way to short-term trading by "speculatively oriented entities such as Enron," said deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev, referring to the high-flying US energy trader that went bankrupt.
"Their fate is known to all," he said on Saturday.
PHOTO: AP
The EU is working on a new energy policy aimed at improving the security of supply and increasing competition, including a proposal to split big energy companies from their distribution networks.
The state-controlled Gazprom, which is the world's largest gas company, produces gas from its Arctic and Siberian gas fields and also owns a distribution pipe network in Germany through its Wingas partnership with BASF's Wintershall division.
Those proposals have taken on new urgency as Europe has seen its oil and gas supplies disrupted by disputes between Russia -- which provides one quarter of its natural gas -- and the countries the supplies pass through such as Ukraine and Belarus on their way to Germany, Poland and other countries.
"We of course are following the new initiatives being advanced in Europe, and we don't just observe but are also in a dialogue with the European Union," said Medvedev, who is in charge of Gazprom's export activities.
"But we think that any attempt to disrupt the system of long-term contracts would pose a threat to reliable gas supplies to Europe," he said.
Medvedev spoke to reporters in Gelsenkirchen in northwestern Germany before a soccer match between FC Schalke and Zenit St Petersburg. Gazprom sponsors both teams.
He said that the company was prepared "to develop the market in full accordance with applicable legislation," but said "it would be extremely unreasonable not to take into account the opinions of gas producers."
He noted that when it came to competition, 60 percent of Wingas' gas contracts were of one-year duration.
"That means Wingas has to show its competitiveness on the market every year," he said.
Much of Gazprom's business is long-term contracts with buyers obligated years in advance to pay whether they use the gas or not, the so-called "take or pay" practice.
He also said any liberalization should not deprive companies of control of their pipelines. Some have proposed giving competitors access to utility companies' pipelines, as has been done with phone lines, to increase competition, which in theory should lead to lower prices.
"We have encountered a very dangerous tendency, not only in Germany, but in Europe as a whole, that the owners of infrastructure cannot be sure they will be able to preserve their property interest in their assets," Medvedev said.
"We feel the obligation to supply natural gas to our customers, and access to infrastructure, control over it, is a necessary condition for supplying gas," he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS