Russ Oil-Gas

21 November 2006 - Upstream onLine - Russian gas giant Gazprom is set to run its eye over a list of potential takeover targets in the US, the state-run monopoly's deputy export chief told a conference in Moscow today. "Gazprom plans to soon start analysing US assets to penetrate the North American energy market," Reuters quoted Sergei Yemelyanov as saying. He said Gazprom's key overseas trading arm, UK-registered Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GMT), had opened an office in the US and will focus on liquefied natural gas trading. Gazprom has no LNG production of its own but has clinched a few sporadic spot deals in the past years in a bid to become a global energy trading company. It had planned to win 20% of the US gas market by 2030 with the launch of the Shtokman field, but revised the plan last month when it said gas would mainly go to Europe and dashed the hopes of US companies which hoped to help tap the field. The move was interpreted as a Kremlin reaction to the cooling of relations with Washington, which have improved this month after the US finally cleared Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation. Gazprom is present in almost every European country and is focusing on accessing end-users directly by bypassing national gas monopolies to boost profits. Yemelyanov said GMT will open an office in Paris on Friday and had already signed its first direct gas sales deals with French customers. He declined to give details. He also said Gazprom wanted to increase operations in Israel and Albania. He said Albania was important as a transit route for Russian gas to Italy via the trans-Adriatic pipeline.