Gazprom against Russian LNG export competition

Russia’s Gazprom asked the government to block the changes to the gas-export law that now allows the other state-run company, Rosneft, to export LNG abroad, claiming it would create too much competition between domestic exporters.

According to Bloomberg, Gazprom’s deputy CEO Valery Golubev wrote a letter to the Energy Ministry saying that the law “will strengthen the bargaining position of potential foreign buyers of Russian gas.”

Rosneft was allowed to export gas from the Pechora LNG project last year, together with Novatek’s Yamal LNG project, which weakened Gazprom’s monopoly, in a move that should help the country shift its energy exports to Asia.

LNG World News Staff, August 19, 2014; Image: Gazprom