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Energy security requires better consumer-producer 'balance': Russia


A new strategy for global energy security requires a better balance between the needs of consumer and producer countries, Russia's Group of Eight "sherpa" Igor Shuvalov said here Tuesday.

Energy security is at the top of the agenda for the G8 summit that Russia is to host in July and "the approach must be more balanced" on the issue to foster interdependence between rich Western countries with advanced technologies and those that possess the raw materials, Shuvalov said.

"Without the technologies of our partners, we will not build our new economy and without our hydrocarbons the economies of those countries cannot develop," Shuvalov, who is also a key economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said in a briefing ahead of the July G8 summit.

Russia's view of energy security, he said, is "based above all on market mechanisms, with state intervention only where it is sought by entrepreneurs or when it is impossible to organize activities without the state," Shuvalov said.

He criticized demands from the European Union for free access to extraction as well as transport and sale of Russian hydrocarbons based on competition between various companies.

Shuvalov said in essence that this would result in rapid exploitation of available resources but "would ultimately result in higher prices and inadequate supply" on world energy markets.

He called for launch of a "long-term investment cycle" in the energy sector with a view to development of energy reserves over the next 30 years in anticipation of large-scale introduction of new sources of energy.

Expert opinion

Halter Marek

02.12.06

Halter Marek
Le College de France
Olivier Giscard d’Estaing

02.12.06

Olivier Giscard d’Estaing
COPAM, France
Mika Ohbayashi

02.12.06

Mika Ohbayashi
Institute for Sustainable Energy Poliñy
Bill Pace

02.12.06

Bill Pace
World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy
Peter I. Hajnal

01.12.06

Peter I. Hajnal
Toronto University, G8 Research Group


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