Platts: EU's oil-indexed, long-term gas contracts with Russia drop below 20%: Lowe

The EU's oil-indexed long-term gas supply contracts with Russia have dropped below 20%, Philip Lowe, director general of the European Commission's energy department said at a conference held by European gas association Eurogas on Thursday.

"82% of European gas volumes in the first 10 months of 2012 were delivered through the hubs, compared to 74 per cent for the full year 2011,' Lowe said.

The figures show that concerns over Gazprom's stranglehold on oil-indexed gas contracts is diminishing -- a fact that the European Commission finally seems to have taken on board, Simon Blakey, Eurogas special envoy and gas expert told Platts at the conference sidelines.

"The EC does understand that the world today doesn't look like it did two years ago," he said.   MORE