Gazprom OAO 's deal with Algerian gas major Sonatrach isn't an attempt to create a cartel, Gazprom's Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said Thursday. European Union Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on Thursday expressed concern that a close cooperation between Gazprom and state-owned Sonatrach could lead to Russian-Algerian gas cartel.
Medvedev said "such a statement has no ground. It is natural that gas producers... cooperate... in upstream and downstream" businesses. Medvedev was speaking in an interview broadcast by television CNBC from the sidelines of a conference in Davos, Switzerland.
Last weekend Russia's energy minister, Viktor Khristenko, said Gazprom and Sontrach had agreed to an exchange of natural gas assets, news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Algeria will take four deposits of natural gas in Russia, Russian Industry and Energy Minister said Sunday. Algeria is preparing the proposal for the assets it will give to Gazprom, he said.
Khristenko also said Russian and Algerian specialists will soon start working on nuclear energy cooperation between the two countries.
Medvedev also reiterated that the European Union can depend on Russia for reliable energy supplies in the future, despite recent curtailment of oil and gas supplies to Europe following a price spats with Ukraine and Belarus at the beginning of 2006 and 2007, respectively.
