Brussels, 15/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Russian gas company Gazprom has provided the European Commission with assurances as to its intentions regarding its new plans for gas pipelines linking Russia to the EU, according to its CEO, Alexei Miller, following the meeting between Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and the Russian energy Minister, Alexander Novak, in Vienna on Friday 11 September (see EUROPE 11387).
As regards the project Nord Stream-2, Gazprom notified the Commission that on 4 September of this year, a shareholder pact had been signed with five European partners (E.ON, BASF-Wintershall, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell and Engie) to build two new gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea in order to double the capacity of the gas pipeline Nord Stream, which has been in service since 2012 (see EUROPE 11382). “We noted that the project will be implemented strictly in accordance with European legislation”, Miller said. “The (construction) period is in no way related to the issues of the Third Energy Package. It has nothing to do with regulatory issues. We talked about plans, about volumes, about how consultations with the European Commission will be conducted in future”, he added, reported by the Russian press agency Interfax.
Gazprom also provided Sefcovic with information about negotiations with Turkey regarding the planned Turkish Stream gas pipeline, a project which takes over from the shelved South Stream project, which the Russian gas company will use to provide the European market with 47 billion m3 of gas a year. “We discussed issues that concern possible volumes of supplies along this route”, Miller clarified.
Lastly, as regards negotiations on supplies of gas to Ukraine, Gazprom is “prepared to hold negotiations”, but is “not prepared to and will not sign a contract on unacceptable terms”. “The litigation (between Gazprom and the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz regarding the latter's arrears for supplies of gas in 2013 and 2014: Ed) in Stockholm is certainly a very important factor (…). A decision by the Stockholm court and the subsequent implementation of these decisions will to a great extent also determine the negotiations with our Ukrainian partners on these issues in future”, said Miller. “But we have never said that we are automatically reducing the amount of transit through Ukraine (post-2019: Ed) to zero. Particularly since there are such countries, for example Moldova, to which gas will absolutely certainly be transported through Ukrainian territory. And this means that there will continue to be certain amounts of gas transit through Ukraine after 2019 as well”, Miller stressed. (Emmanuel Hagry)