Bloomberg: Putin Dismisses Concern Gazprom ‘Slept Through’ Shale Gas Boom

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed concerns that OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas producer, will lose in a shale-gas revolution as global energy companies develop unconventional reserves.

“I don’t think we overslept anything, but we should monitor it with utmost care,” Putin said in a televised live phone-in conference today. “Whether Gazprom slept through the shale revolution or not, it’s a difficult question. There is no answer to it yet.”

Gazprom, Russia’s gas export monopoly, has concentrated on traditional fields from western Siberia to the Pacific coast, shipping the fuel to Europe through pipelines. That focus allowed the U.S. to overtake Russia as the No. 1 gas producer in 2009 as advances in technology made shale drilling economically feasible in North America.  MORE