“In line with the volumes that are contracted and will be contracted…Gazprom sets the transport volumes…If they are given to someone else, then this cannot have an effect on the economy, the extraction, or the transport, and it’s clear this would not be positive,” Medvedev said in response to a question on allowing independent producers access to the Power of Siberia pipeline project.
Gazprom also sees no need to attract foreign partners in its gas transport projects in Russia, Medvedev added.
“In regard to attracting foreign partners in gas transport on our territory, there isn’t, hasn’t been, and won’t be any need for that,” Medvedev said.
In 2014, Russia's Gazprom and China’s CNPC signed a 30-year contract stipulating the delivery of 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline.
Construction on the pipeline kicked off last September, and the first deliveries are scheduled for 2018.
Russian energy giant Gazprom accounts for 72 percent of Russian gas output and 12 percent of the global one. In 2014 the group produced 443.9 billion cubic meters of gas.
The Russian government holds over 50 percent of Gazprom’s shares.
