The Energy Union created by the European countries is a step on the way to the trade relations during ‘‘the cold war’’, which may deprive them of the Russian gas, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy, Pavel Zavalny told in an interview with a ‘VK’ correspondent.
"The purpose of this organization is quite simple – to reduce energy dependence on Russia in the sector of gas supply. This project is being implemented in some way. They made the decision to implement the project of creation of the Energy Union. Now all gas supply contracts between the Russia and consumers from Europe should be sent to the European Commission. It means that all conditions of agreements – both value, and volumes will become known. It will help them to develop a common approach for procurement of this resource in our country," he said.
"It is clear that it doesn’t make us happy because on one side we joined the WTO and planned to work in terms of market economy and use the market pricing mechanism whether it is gas supply or transportation of gas. At the same time any alliance is a rejection of this approach in favor of any political and geopolitical decisions. To put it mildly, it doesn’t make us happy. We try to build a more open relations and terminated the Indian partnership paradigm with our partners in the European Union. But all actions of the EU policy lead to the fact that we are on the way to the era of the "cold war", in the era of trade partnership with the ‘’buy-sell’’ model,’’ he complained.
"Such a situation can influence gas prices because if gas prices are low during a long period of time it is economically disadvantageous to supply it, and consequently, they won’t receive gas. If we have no money we cannot develop gas fields. We will always be able to provide our country with the necessary volume of gas, but we won’t have enough volumes to supply it to our European partners,’’ the deputy warned.
In this regard, he recalled the recent Poland’s refusal to prolong long-term contract and buy gas from "Gazprom". "The long-term contracts guarantee safe gas supplies during a long period of time. The spot system does not allow to guarantee it. In this case, the supplier and the consumer agree to sell and bought a certain amount of gas, but it does not guarantee that gas will be delivered in future. It is their personal choice how to invest money, develop or not to develop deposits of deposit. That is why Poland can remain without gas at all. Europe also has such risks, and it is fairly noticeable,’’ Pavel Zavalny concluded.
