Sooner or later, Europe will realize that in the next decades it will continue to be in need of Russian gas to save its energy security, despite the various political trends, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy, Ivan Grachyov, told Vestnik Kavkaza. "I think that the European illusion, that shale gas or something else will replace Russian gas, will fade, because in reality, Europe needs Russian gas, and if it wants to be competitive it will be even more in need of it," it said.
According to him, Russia, in its turn, should diversify its gas exports to Europe, which means, in particular, the preservation of supplies through Ukraine.
The chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy expressed confidence that the Turkish Stream will be built. "We are talking about a very small rotation of the route, which firstly went through Bulgaria to the European part of Turkey. It is not so difficult to implement - and then Europe will have to buy the gas in any case. The Europeans are warned that they need to prepare for 2019, when shipments through Ukraine will be either blocked or reduced and they will have to buy fuel anyway via Turkey and Greece. I am sure that Austria and Hungary will join the Turkish Stream, and as a result the project will have access to European consumers, which was planned for the South Stream, the deputy noted.
Ivan Grachyov does not expect any radical changes in the structure of the oil and gas market in the coming years. "Huge changes are expected only by American companies involved in shale gas production. I think that a large part of them will fail and will be forced either to join the big companies or disappear. I believe that large associations are possible in terms of the development of our north, because it has very high costs of high-tech projects, which require concentration of resources. But I do not see any obvious mergers or acquisitions, and I think that this story is still quite slow and not precipitous," he concluded.
