The Gazprom Loudspeaker

Those Stupid Europeans

The Europeans don’t understand specifics of the gas market,’ Anatoly Dmitriyevsky insists. The silver-headed guru of Russian geology heads the Moscow-based Institute of Oil and Gas Problems and for many years has been advising Gazprom managers—and publicizing their opinions.

Running Gazprom’s errands at various international conferences, Dmitriyevsky bashes the gas directives of the European Commission and the European Parliament’s recent vote on the Regulation on Security of Gas Supply. The approved rules require member states to establish preventive action and emergency plans and grant the European Commission a stronger role in coordinating emergency responses, such as cross-border infrastructure interconnectors.

EU countries will have four years to get their gas networks up to a standard where they can meet gas needs on days of ‘exceptionally high demand’ - which statistically occur once every 20 years - even when their biggest source of gas or a major section of the network fails. Moreover, they will have to put in place reverse flow technology in all cross-border interconnections within three years.

The mouthpiece of Gazprom does not conceal his anger. The Europeans want to take over the management of trunk pipelines: ‘this is how they see the end of their dependence on Russia, but this way leads to a blind alley,’ Dmitriyevsky says. ‘It’s not profitable for Russia to build pipelines it cannot manage afterwards. It wants to control the reimbursement of its investments. And Europe is just impeding development of the gas supply system.’

‘Control’ is the key word here. The stupid Europeans are ignorant of all the benefits they can enjoy by allowing Gazprom to manage their pipelines. One of such benefits, according to the guru, is the opportunity to sign long-term contracts with Gazprom.

Asked about the widening gap between the prices in Gazprom’s contracts and the cheaper prices on the spot market, Dmitriyevsky responds in his characteristic manner: ‘Well, you know, there are so many various factors… Journalists are to blame for distortions… I’m not going to discuss the prices issue. It isn’t my topic. I’m an academician.’

Ending his interview to the Slon.ru business news website, he admitted that Russia was ‘losing the information war’ to the EU. ‘You waste a lot of time on journalists but they cannot understand anything,’ Dmitriyevsky concluded indignantly.

The Gazprom-sponsored distinguished scientist is absolutely right. When the Russian gas monopoly has to resort to such defenders and such arguments in the ‘information war’, the result is predictable.

This article was brought to the attention of NGFE by Mihkail Krutikhin. Mr Krutikhin can be contacted at RusEnergy, a consultancy in oil and gas industry of Russia, Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.