Putin calls for preventing spikes in energy prices, balancing interests of businesses and consumers
MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Russia's fuel and energy sector must observe a balance between the interests of businesses and consumers, ensuring stable price conditions, President Vladimir Putin said, opening a meeting on the Murmansk LNG project on Monday.
Russian gas company Novatek presented the Murmansk LNG project this summer. Its advantages, according to the authors of the project, include an ice-free port and the availability of cheap electricity from the Kola Nuclear Power Plant. The company plans to use compressors with electric drives to produce liquefied natural gas. The plant is expected to use Novatek's Arctic Mix technology, with which it is possible to build liquefaction trains with capacity of up to 7 million tonnes of LNG per year.
Participants in the meeting include Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, Kremlin aide Maxim Oreshkin and Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson, photos released by the Kremlin's press service showed.
"In general, in the current difficult conditions, Russia is not only confirming its energy self-sufficiency, independence, protection from external shocks, but also continues to hold key positions in world energy. We are, without any exaggeration, working confidently and self-sufficiently," Putin said.
"However, I want to stress that the main job of the oil and gas sector, the whole domestic fuel and energy sector, is to provide specifically for our country's own needs. The interests of our own economy, all Russian consumers, entrepreneurs, businesses and individuals alike, including the continuation of the very important gasification program, maintaining a balance between the profitability of production, refining, retail sales and the affordability of the corresponding products and services for industry and the population, preventing serious price swings," Putin said.