The CEO of Russia's Novatek does not expect Moscow to lift Gazprom's monopoly on Russian pipeline gas exports any time soon, Leonid Mikhelson saying that Novatek «won't waste time» on lobbying the Kremlin for a change in policy, Platts reported on October 18, 2017.
Leonid Mikhelson said Novatek would welcome a move to end the monopoly, which currently allows only Gazprom the right to export gas via pipelines.
But he said this was not a likely scenario at present. «I can't say we're not interested, but at the current stage the issue is irrelevant,» he said. «We won't get a positive result so we won't waste our time on this.»
Instead, Novatek is focused squarely on starting and growing its LNG exports with the 1st train of its Yamal LNG plant set to ship its 1st cargo before the end of 2017.
Speculation has mounted in the past 2 years that the Kremlin was considering lifting the Gazprom monopoly for pipeline exports - especially via the planned eastern Power of Siberia route to China.
But to date, Moscow has insisted it has no plans to lift the monopoly.
Analysts believe Moscow is concerned about a further fall in the European gas price should it liberalize gas exports, given a potential new flood of Russian gas onto the market.
