Pipes and production are like apples and oranges: Ministry of Energy vaguely hints at reform of Gazprom

The reform of the domestic gas market, started skidding in the middle of 2000s, and it may  continue. Informal discussions on the reorganization of Gazprom, which resumed last year, were reflected in an official document for the first time: the Ministry of Energy proposes to separate the transport component from the main business of the monopoly “in the future”, and then to refuse to regulate the wholsale gas prices in the Russian energy strategy through until 2035. However, nobody speaks about the withdrawal of pipelines from the Gazprom’s structure for while.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Energy published the basic framework of the Russian energy strategy through until 2035. Measures on the liberalization of the internal gas market are proposed in it: the stimulation of independent producers and the development of exchange trade. Experts of the Energy Ministry also find necessary “to complete the separation of naturally monopolistic business activities from the competitive ones in  Gazprom’s system in the future”, and also “to pass on from the regulation of wholesale gas prices to regulation of gas transportation tariffs”.