Zarubezhneft calls for abandoning target of netback parity with European gas prices
ASTRAKHAN. June 5 (Interfax) - The goal of achieving netback parity between Russian and European gas prices should be abandoned, Zarubezhneft CEO Sergei Kudryashov believes.
"The level of export European price parity is at present objectively too high for Russian consumers. And in terms of global competition, low prices for gas and electricity are no longer a competitive advantage of our economy compared to the United States and China. The Russian government currently looks more at inflation when setting domestic gas prices and a link to the European price with the application of a coefficient of 0.58, 0.57 and even 0.7 is, essentially, in principle a fiction," Kudryashov said Wednesday at a meeting of the presidential commission for the development of the fuel and energy sector.
"In this regard, we believe that we need to abandon the principle of achieving netback parity only with the European market. We need to find new price benchmarks, based on the internal needs of the country's economy and competition with other markets," Kudryashov said.