International experts discuss European gas market

The Energy Experts Round Table attended by experts from Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia was held in Sofia yesterday.

The Turkish Stream natural gas project is one of these key projects that will ensure Turkey's energy security by eliminating future transit risks, head of the Institute for Energy Markets and Policies (EPPEN) Volkan Ozdemir said at.

Deputy director of Russia’s National Energy Security Fund Alexey Grivach said that natural gas politics is a major problem for Europe and the Balkans region.

"Politics in natural gas is adding costs to all sides - producers, the transit sides and the end customer," Grivach argued.

He urged for the de-escalation of such politics against Russian supplies for the sake of secure, safe and affordable gas.

"Russian supplies are the most stable, affordable and secure for Europe and energy should be secure safe and affordable. This is what Russian gas offers, but it's discriminated against like the Turkish Stream, South Stream and Nord Stream. It's unfair competition," Anadolu Agency cited him as saying.

He argued that the third energy package that the EU introduced to promote and enlarge competition merely limited competition and brought additional cost to customers.

"Energy became less affordable and the prices increased in the final market," Grivach said.