EMEA News
Rosneft Could Compete with Gazprom on LNG
The potential market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia is growing rapidly, fueling a move to allow oil company OAO Rosneft to compete with Gazprom OAO, which currently has a monopoly on Russian LNG, news agency RT reports.
"The LNG market is developing fast and we forecast the consuming power to grow by 4-6% annually, while traditional gas consuming market is expected to grow by 2% until 2030," said Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak.
"New technologies allow liquidising gas and shipping it to any part of the world. This only means, the market is globalising."
President Vladimir Putin has given support to the idea of breaking up Gazprom's monopoly and has called for officials to "think through step-by-step liberalisation" of LNG exports.
Energy information firm Enerdata ranks Russia as the world's largest producer of natural gas, just ahead of the U.S., but it has only one active LNG plant run by a consortium led by Gazprom.
Rosneft is working with U.S.-based ExxonMobil on a possible LNG facility in Russia's Far East.
The oil company has also offered ExxonMobil a stake in some areas of the continental shelf for oil and gas production, and it is looking for other partners for oil and gas development in Asia and elsewhere.
