Russian domination continues. From the time of the infamous events surrounding gas supplies in the winter of 2009 Europe wants to get rid of dependence on Russia. And although since the political disagreements, it’s been eight years, Europe has never been so dependent on Russian gas supplies, as it is now.
Last year, the Russian export giant Gazprom, in which the government owns 75%, has set a record volume of natural gas to the countries of the European Union. Thus, the share of Russian gas in total consumption in the EU exceeded 30%.
According to the January forecast of the mining company BP, by 2035 Russia will remain the largest gas exporter in the European Union. Last week this estimate was confirmed by a Dutch mining company Royal Dutch Shell.
#Gazprom”s exports to #Germany add 37% between February 1 and 15: https://t.co/pIQhHvRKvk pic.twitter.com/xdPe05jRHn
— Gazprom (@GazpromEN) 20 Feb 2017
European policies persistently oriented to the increase of gas supplies from the United States. We are talking about liquefied natural gas (LNG), transported on American vessels. This gas could partly replace gas from Gazprom. However, the first delivery has not yet been carried out: the process delay delays in contracts between firms and the high price of gas outside of Europe. Last year, the largest exporter of LNG in Europe was Qatar. But the volume of supply is not exceeded by 2015.
“Russia will definitely remain the largest exporter of gas to Europe for at least the next two decades. So, even if Europe will increase import of LNG from overseas exporters”, — said economist of BP Vladimir Drebentsov.
Nejbohatší muž planety? Vladimír #Putin — Roklen24.cz https://t.co/YkcAwO8FwW prostřednictvím @roklen24 #wealth #world #money #Russia pic.twitter.com/GbvocSMYQe
— Roklen24.cz (@roklen24) 24 Feb 2017
Diversification of the energy supply and infrastructure are one of the priorities of the European Commission (EC), as Bloomberg said the press Secretary of the EC. However, the head of Gazprom, Viktor Zubkov stressed that in the current year expects approximately the same export volumes to Europe, as in the past. And yet, this year, the Russian gas will have to compete with competitors. From mid-2017 in Europe are to receive these LNG from the United States and Australia. Another problem is the relative rise in price of Russian gas from-for sharp growth of prices for Brent oil in the past year. However, commenting on its revenues, Gazprom has denied the negative impact of these two factors, and the main role was given to the change in the price specified in new contracts.
“There are many means by which Russia can use to promote your gas, said Melissa stark, Director of energy firm Accenture. — Gazprom never had to be aggressively commercial. Thanks to the contracts of his position never threatened”.
Fluctuations in Russian supplies is always a serious impact on European markets. In January 2009, due to limitations in supplies of gas prices in Britain rose by 27% in just one day.
