Tatiana Mitrova, Head of the Oil & Gas Department at the Energy Research Institute in Moscow, joins Hughes Belin on viEUws.eu to analyse the consequences of the troubled EU-Russia relations for energy trade. According to Mitrova, the current situation is a “perfect storm” which she warns “could mark the beginning of the end of the European gas industry.”
Mitrova believes the “unification of the European position on gas”, as advocated in the EU’s plans for an Energy Union, “will lead to further unification of the Russian position. All the talk about the potential liberalisation of gas exports [in Russia] will be forgotten. I see no positive outcome from this Gosplan type of business, neither for Russia nor Europe.”
Mitrova notes that “year after year European gas demand is going down, and we see no signs of recovery, even now when gas prices are low. If you add the overall political situation”, it is clear, she says, that energy trade will suffer. “It’s a perfect storm. All negative factors coincide. If there are no active actions taken, it could mark the beginning of the end of the European gas industry.”
According to Mitrova, we are moving towards a “Soviet style situation when all gas was sold on the Soviet border, without any downstream activity. Russia is just trying to preserve its market position, Europe is just trying to secure security of supply. Nobody is talking about growing the gas trade.”
This video appeared first on viEUws entitled Despite rising tensions, Europe to remain Russia’s main gas customer.
Jeffrey Michel says
The “overall political situation” to which Ms. Mitrova refers is proving very detrimental to certain parts of the European manufacturing sector. Russia is being deprived of needed Western technology due to diminished gas export revenues. Under this circumstance, the German lignite industry is relying on widespread reservations over Russian foreign policy to entrench its own position. Just recently, a public opinion poll was conducted by the Insa-Consulere marketing research institute with the following affirmation that the respondent was asked to confirm or deny: “I am against increasing our dependency on Russian gas by shutting down lignite power plants.” Allegedly 54% of the participants agreed with this position. Suppose instead that the following question had been posed: “Do you support the ongoing operation of lignite power plants if export volumes of German manufactured goods decline to Russia, while pristine landscapes in Germany continue to be destroyed by lignite mining?” It is difficult to imagine the majority of respondents agreeing with this viewpoint, which nonetheless reflects current national energy policy.
Julien says
I understood that TAFTA will enable EU to import gas from US, thus may reduce the Russian gas import. Am I right?