Russ Oil-Gas

Sep. 12, 2007 - Kommersant - Cambridge Energy Research Associates consulting company published a report yesterday on perspectives for cooperation between Russia and the European Union in natural gas. CERA analysts call for a more pragmatic view of Gazprom and Russia in general and opine that the EU is taking substantial risks in liberalizing the energy market because growing demand for gas inside Russia may make Russia itself Europe's main competitor for Gazprom's gas. The CERA report is timed to the release of the European Commission's initiatives on the liberalization of the European energy market, in which restrictions are proposed on investments by third countries that are not equally open to European investment. Besides Russia, those restriction could affect Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. CERA is critical to the European Commission's initiatives, calling them politicized. The CERA analysts say that liberalization of the European energy market, combined with the EU ecological policy may lead to a situation in which the EU becomes more dependent on Russian gas and simultaneously more isolated from Russia politically and economically. The analysts say that supplies of liquefied natural gas from the Persian Gulf area will increase, but tensions with Russia will drive up prices on all forms of gas.