WSJ: Ukraine No Hindrance To Gas Flow, Says GDF Suez Chief
Geopolitical tensions over Ukraine shouldn’t have an impact on the flow of natural gas from Russia to Europe as this remains crucial for both sides, the head of French power utility GDF Suez said Thursday.
“In the short term, neither Europe nor Russia has any interest to cut the gas supplies,” GDF Suez’s Chairman and Chief Executive Gérard Mestrallet said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The current crisis has ignited fears that Moscow could stop gas flowing to countries in the European Union, as the bloc has backed Ukraine in its spat with Russia over Crimea and Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.
Some European nations, such as the Baltic countries, fully rely on Russian gas for their energy. For its part Russia, which is currently experiencing substantial capital outflows, relies on oil and gas for about 70% of its external revenues.
Mr. Mestrallet said the deputy chief executive of Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev, had reassured French customers that the company would keep gas flowing to Europe during a visit to Paris this week. About 14% of France’s imported gas comes from Russia, according to French industry figures.
GDF Suez has been a customer of Russia’s OAO Gazprom for the past 35 years and had suffered no interruption to gas supply other than in 2009, when the Russian gas group temporarily halted all shipments to Ukraine over the country’s lack of payments, Mr. Mestrallet said.
At the time, supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe flowed through the only existing gas pipeline, which transited through Ukraine.