Gazprom: Uncontrolled LNG export could lead to deficit on domestic market

MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The uncontrolled export of liquefied natural gas can lead to a shortage on the Russian domestic market, deputy directorate head at Gazprom , Kirill Polous said at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Energy.

An associated bill was introduced in July by a group of deputies following a trip by members of parliament to Murmansk (where the future Murmansk LNG plant is planned).

Polous said that the bill gives the right to individual companies to export LNG without being tied to specific fields. That is, it allows one to use not only one's own fields as approved by the state for LNG export, but absolutely any resource base for these purposes.

"What does this mean? Essentially, individual subsoil users will have the opportunity to maximize LNG exports to the detriment of supplies to the domestic market, and also act as intermediaries in the sale of gas for export to other companies," he said.

"Therefore, the draft law in the proposed version creates preconditions for the uncontrolled export of LNG from the Russian Federation and increases the risk to reliable gas supply to Russian consumers. In other words, in the future we could see on the domestic gas market the same thing we now have on the domestic oil products market," he said.