February 21, 2008 By James Kimer

Asymmetry Grows Between Gazprom and Europe

A new article at the European Voice calls upon the European Union to get its act together with a common energy policy to achieve bargaining parity with Gazprom:

Imagine, say, winter 2015, and an announcement by Gazprom that it cannot provide the gas volumes it had promised. It then declares that it must re-negotiate terms with all of its European customers, who have in the interim failed to diversify supplies. Gazprom could then effectively ‘cherry-pick’ customers for scarce supplies. Political co-operation could well become a factor. Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, let’s say, get supplies equal to what they had been promised – a reward for their co-operation with Russia on other matters.