/ world today news/ On February 17, “Gazprom” turns 20 years old. During these years, the corporation managed to become the undisputed leader in gas production in Russia and one of the main suppliers of hydrocarbon fuel in Europe.
Experts are convinced that now “Gazprom” will begin to develop activities in the east, developing deposits in Eastern Siberia, on the Yamal Peninsula and will claim a solid share of the Asian gas markets. On February 17, 1993, the state gas concern “Gazprom” was transformed in a Russian joint-stock company of the same name. The state concern itself originated from the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry. It was in 1980 that it started working together with the European gas giants and exporting gas. But the maximum effective cooperation began at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2011, the “Nord Stream” directly connecting Russia and Germany was put into operation. After a year, its second line was operational and the construction of “South Stream” began. Regardless of the fact that Europe is constantly trying to optimize its costs for raw materials and look for new sources of energy, Gazprom’s positions in the region are quite stable.
On the other hand, Gazprom values not only stability, but also pays great attention to development. The concern wants to exploit new deposits, apply new technologies, but for that it also needs buyers, according to the president of the Union of Oil and Gas Industry of Russia Gennady Shmal:
– We are interested in having sufficiently large and long-term contracts for the supply of Russian gas. Then we could seriously think about increasing the mining capacity. Because the gas industry is sufficiently inertial and we cannot rely on any projects for 1-2 years. We need projects that will work for 15-20 years. And this means that we need long-term gas supply contracts.
If the Russian company gets tired of the European market, it can turn to the East. There, Gazprom will have both new locations and new users, says Russian analyst Vitaly Kryukov:
– The company’s mining areas will gradually change and it will operate in new territories – these are Eastern Siberia, Yamal, the shelf. All these projects require greater investment than in Western Siberia and require new markets and new buyers of gas. Today, in Asia, prices are higher than 600 dollars per thousand cubic meters, and in the European market, these figures, as a rule, are lower than 400 dollars per thousand cubic meters. Therefore, the choice is obvious and the company will invest to a greater extent in new projects, in the construction of new gas pipelines, focusing on the Asian market.
The main project on the European market for Gazprom remains South Stream, which should be built and put into operation in 2015. The main Asian projects are the “Altai” and “Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok” basin pipelines, which will connect Gazprom with China, and then with India and South Korea.
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