EU shift from Russian gas with US LNG risky: Gazprom CEO
2 Min Read
Gazprom CEO warns EU that replacing Russian gas imports with US LNG is risky, citing shale gas costs and uncertain oil price forecasts.
-
Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, listens to a meeting of the European Union energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak and Ukraine's energy minister Yuri Prodan in Berlin, May 30, 2014. (AP)
Alexey Miller, the CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, stated on Monday that the European Union's plan to replace Russian gas imports with liquefied natural gas from the United States is a highly risky strategy.
"They say: we are trying, trying, trying, trying again to completely replace [Russian gas] with shale gas, LNG [from the US] and so on. But it is not working. And the big question is, will it even work at all?" Miller told Rossiya 24.
He further explained, "When we see not some comprehensive solutions, but an attempt to solve the problem with one simple, one-off solution, it surprises us. In our view, this is a very, very high risk, an extremely high risk."
The Gazprom CEO based his warning on what he called "authoritative forecasts" for crude oil prices, though he did not specify which forecasts these were. "Even if the actual price of Brent comes somehow close to these authoritative forecasts, it will become clear that the profitability of shale gas production is quite different. And the question is: who will actually do this, who will produce it?" he stated.
On Monday, following a proposal from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union approved a draft regulation to phase out natural gas imports from Russia starting January 1, 2026. The transition period for existing contracts will remain in place until January 1, 2028, and the Council stated its intention to ban Russian oil imports starting on that same date.
Earlier, on October 16, Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of Italian oil and gas giant Eni, criticized the European Union for focusing heavily on sustainability and the energy transition while failing to develop a credible approach to energy security.
Descalzi stated that "Europe still lacks an energy security plan," and he noted that the continent's vulnerability was exposed only recently when disruptions in fuel supplies revealed what he called "the fragility of the system."
He stressed that while major global powers like the United States, Russia, and China have long-established policies to secure their gas, oil, and critical mineral supplies, Europe remains overdue in creating similar safeguards.
