|
|
|
Expert opinion
|
|
NewsRussia was and remains reliable gas supplier – Dutch minister01.01.70
THE HAGUE, June 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Even though Russia and the Netherlands are of different size, they represent two countries that have exported natural gas and been reliable suppliers for Europe for decades, Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Economics Ministers Laurens Jan Brinkhorst said. Russia has always been a gas supplier and plans to remain such, he said at the opening ceremony for the 23rd World gas Conference at Amsterdam on Monday. He welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commitment after a recent Russia-EU summit when he emphasised the connection between Russia as a producer and Europe as a consumer. He opened the conference together with Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko. Khristenko stressed that energy security is an inalienable part of any of the possible models of the future. More than 80 percent of the world’s energy resources are fossil fuel (coal, oil, and natural gas). Despite the rapid development of atomic energy and the increasingly active use of alternative sources of energy, hydrocarbons will remain the basis of the global energy sector in the first half of the 21st century, he said. The proportion of natural gas in the global energy sector will continue to grow, Khristenko said. Khristenko, who is the chairman of the G8 Committee of Energy Ministers, is attending the conference together with CEOs and experts of major oil and gas companies from 66 countries. Russia has a special view on energy security due to its geographical and economic position. “We are both a major exporter and a large consumer of energy resources. At the same time, Russia is an important state in terms of transit,” Khristenko said. Russia is offering the world new products, he said, referring to liquefied gas. “In the east of our country we are designing a new gas transportation system. Together with the development of the Sakhalin offshore fields, it will bring oil and gas from Russian provinces in the east to the Asia Pacific region,” he said. In 2020, the Asia Pacific region may increase the import of Russian gas to 30 percent and natural gas to 25 percent. Work is under way to explore the possibility of transporting hydrocarbons from offshore fields in the Barents Sea to North America. The world’s deepest gas pipeline, Blue Stream, has been built along the Black Sea bed and may be extended to southern Europe. The North European Gas Pipeline will diversify gas exports and allow Russia to better manoeuvre them, increase gas supplies to Western Europe and fulfill its obligations under existing and future long-term gas contracts, and finally link the Russian gas transport network with the European network, Khritsneko said. He stressed that Russia has been engaged over the past 10 years in an intensive energy dialogue with Europe, the European Union, the United States, OPEC, and Asia Pacific region. An exhibition of 15,000 square metres, to feature cutting-edge technology and latest developments in the gas industry, is timed to coincide with the conference. The conference and the exhibition will last till June 9. |
|
Expert opinion
|
