Russia should demonopolize gas market in response to external challenges - Gref
MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) - President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sberbank German Gref, who was unable to overcome resistance to radical reform in the gas sector as Economic Development and Trade Minister, said that Russia urgently needs to return to the issue of demonopolizing the gas industry amid changing conditions on the global market.
At a Gaidar Forum on Wednesday, Gref spoke about his impressions during a recent trip to the U.S. Despite Russian gas sector representatives' assurances that the role of shale gas is over-exaggerated, in the U.S. gas is rapidly becoming cheaper. In that country, "there is a fast process of transitioning to public transport to work that runs on gas - it is becoming a mass technology," Gref said.
The U.S. Department of Energy currently overestimates global gas reserves by over ten-fold, he said. "And we, with our share of 25% [in global reserves at the current estimation] are trying to build pipelines and maintain our monopoly on production. It seems to me that that now requires a fast, new understanding and competitive intervention," Gref said.
"We have an enormous danger in the energy sector. The direction in which we are going with energy creates colossal systemic risks for economic development," he said.