By Vestnik Kavkaza
German steel companies Salzgitter and Dilinger Hutte will provide pipes for the project of the South Stream Pipeline, which has been shut down for an indefinite period, Deutsche Welle reports. Yesterday the web-site of Salzgitter published information that South Stream Transport B.V. in Amsterdam has stopped the delay on supplies of pipe productions for the gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, which was required by the agreement. Now the sides will hold talks about terms of production and transportation of 150 thousand tons of steel pipes. As the project of South Stream failed, Russia's Gazprom declared a new route of the gas pipeline. The new project of the Turkish Stream requires transportation of Russian gas through the Black Sea to Turkey and then to the Greek border. According to Gazprom, gas supplies to Europe will start in December 2016.
Meanwhile, the rejection of South Stream damaged not only European industry, but also all economic spheres.
“The situation in the European Union is that there is high dependence on Russia in the context of objective political tension. It is not a situation which is comfortable for the European Commission,” said Alexander Kurdin, the head of the Energy Strategic Research Department of the Analytical Center under the Russian government.
According to him, “representatives of the European gas sphere express doubts about the necessary aggressive policy by the European Commission in talks with us.”
At the same time, the expert thinks that the policy of diversification is connected not only with an attempt to reject Russian gas, but also with an attempt to develop renewable power generation and increase energy efficiency – it is expensive and predetermined by political, not economic interests.
“European bureaucracy is similar to the Soviet model – it may seem ineffective, but it has a wonderful ability to force in its decisions. The environmental goals of the EU and the Third Energy Package are criticized a lot. The European industry didn’t like this either, however, European bureaucrats managed to put pressure on companies. And as a result they have to accept a policy which is dictated by Brussels. So, political factors are really strong here,” Kudrin believes.
The expert thinks that the EU policy on diversification is explained by the fact it doesn’t want to be dependant on the only exporter: “The political factor will play a big role. Not even special anti-Russian comments will be made there, but also the policy of diversification not in favor of Russian gas will be actively provided there.
Russian gas is objectively more expensive than gas of other exporters. Gas in European hubs is cheaper than Russian gas by one third. Of course they are interested in shifting the price to a competitive field. And the EU's interests are reasonable in this sphere.”
