MOSCOW, November 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom intends to supply some 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Britain in 2006, Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said Wednesday.
"We are planning to increase exports of natural gas to Britain to 10 billion cubic meters by 2010," Medvedev, who is also the general director of Gazprom's export subsidiary, Gazexport, said adding that about 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas would be supplied to Britain this year.
He also said 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas could cost about $200 in Europe next year. "The price of natural gas in Europe will be higher than this year's and will be about $200 per 1,000 cubic meters."
Commenting on Gazprom's first swap deal with French natural gas giant Gaz de France on exchanging pipeline natural gas with LNG, Medvedev said, "Strengthening Gazprom's positions on the traditional natural gas market in Europe, we are also entering the global gas market using the model of exchanging pipeline gas with LNG. It will open additional opportunities to develop business in a new sphere, LNG supplies, and to pursue the strategy of making Gazprom a global energy company."
Speaking about natural gas supplies to Ukraine, which has been a stumbling block in bilateral relations, Medvedev said the gas price that the natural gas monopoly had offered Ukraine was preferential. He said that the price of $160 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas offered to Ukraine was lower than the real market price. However, Ukraine has been insisting that Russian gas supplies and transit be continued on the same terms as in 2005, despite earlier top-level agreements to move to European prices and tariffs.
"We expect Russia's good-neighborly approach to be taken into account," he said. "We want to make the first steps toward European standards of payment in gas deals between Russia and Ukraine."
Earlier on Wednesday, Medvedev and Rainer Seele, a board member of BASF subsidiary Wintershall, signed an agreement on natural gas supplies to Romania until 2030 via WIEH, a Gazprom-Wintershall joint venture in which each company holds a 50% stake. The sides also discussed current trans-border pipeline projects and cooperation on the enlargement of gas storage in Romania.
