According to the official Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, Gazprom is examining the possibility of a joint gas compnay with the Iranian government. The Gazprom chief Alexei Miller met the Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Nejad Hosseinian in Moscow to discuss a joint venture and "agreed on steps to activate the work in promising directions". Last week the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Russia and Iran "can closely cooperate from the standpoint of setting natural gas prices... in the interests of global stability".
The Government claims that the Energy Review (which they've already pre-empted) is designed to reduce our reliance on Russian gas. In fact there will be evidence to the Trade and Industry Committee tomorrow on the issue. However, the way that Russia is using Gazprom (such as in Ukraine), and the pace at which it is expanding into other markets is starting to get extremely worrying - especially now that it's seeking alliances with Iran.
2 comments:
If Russians want to set up worldwide energy operations and seek as good a price as they can get, who can blame them?
Ukraine's gas was so cheap that most Ukrainians left the gas fires on and the windows open.
More worrying is the Russian's treatment of the Georgians. But our gas doesn't come via there so we don't hear about that.
Hmm, what am I bid for this leading towards some kind of OGEC?
Puts me in mind of Smith's comment: "People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or some contrivance to raise prices."
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