Translated material
Twice thirty years
Burkhard Bergmann: "Germany and Europe will remain attractive and important markets for Russian natural gas"
Tomorrow in the Finnish city of Lahti an informal summit of leaders of the European Union countries will take place, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to participate. This meeting is very important for Moscow and Brussels: in a year the ten-year agreement on partnership and cooperation will expire, and now comes the decisive moment for preparing a new document and defining a strategy for relations for the coming years. The bulk of the work will obviously fall on the next President of the European Union - starting in the new year, these powers will transfer from Finland to Germany.Germany, which next year will also chair the G8, as its leaders have recently said, intends to take on the role of sherpa in ensuring a reliable energy supply for Europe. Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier also spoke in favor of this at a “kick-off” meeting of German diplomats in Berlin, which was dedicated to the future of the EU and the formation of the course of European policy on the eve of Germany’s presidency of the EU and the G8. “An area of activity that has recently become especially obvious will be the provision of German and European energy supplies,” Minister Steinmeier admonished the German missions abroad. “We will give energy issues a special role in the coming year.” Steinmeier himself, by the way, is sometimes called the “shadow minister of energy.” More than any of his predecessors as Foreign Minister, he is a conduit for the interests of German companies abroad. And he himself calls the energy industry the main direction.
In the West, there are three components on which, based on the current foreign policy strategy, the EU-Russia partnership should be based: energy, trade and human rights. Regarding the first point, it is known from diplomatic circles in Berlin: the European Union is seeking to conclude a trilateral agreement with Russia, Iceland and Norway on the production of natural gas in the Arctic seas.
In the medium to long term, Europe will face an increasingly acute dilemma, which Mr. Steinmeier outlined in a recent article in the newspaper Handelsblatt: “It is typical for the energy supply situation in Germany and Europe that oil and gas from the North Sea will run out this century. Most of the world's energy reserves are located in regions with political instability." In these conditions, Mr. Steinmeier believes, the development of an energy partnership with Russia is a reliable alternative to the resources of the North Sea.
One of the key recent events in energy cooperation between Russia and Germany was the signing of documents between Gazprom and the German E.ON Ruhrgas, according to which from 2010-2011 to 2036 the German company will purchase up to 400 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in addition to the already contracted volume. Annual supplies of about 24 billion cubic meters of gas will correspond to approximately one-third of the volume purchased by this company and will account for about 25% of gas consumption in Germany. Thus, for the next 30 years, the E.ON concern and its gas subsidiary E.ON Ruhrgas have become the guarantor of a stable supply of Russian natural gas to Germany and the EU.
The true scale and significance of this deal has yet to be assessed, including by politicians and diplomats from both countries paving the way for Russian natural gas to the West. It is symbolic that on the German side, new 30-year agreements were signed by E.ON Ruhrgas chief Burkhard Bergmann - more than three decades ago, his signature appeared on one of the first agreements on the supply of Russian gas to Germany.
The beginning of the 70s of the last century, when these contracts were discussed and concluded, was the time of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. The first business contacts of German companies with the then Soviet gas industry were built despite the resistance of the highest echelon of German foreign policy. Meanwhile, the development of cooperation with Gazprom for the head of E.ON Ruhrgas Burkhard Bergmann, who has been a member of the board of directors of the Russian gas concern for many years, has become part - and an indisputable merit - of his daily business. A few years ago, in his speeches, he drew the attention of the European political and business community to the tightening competition among natural gas importers, in particular to the rapid growth in energy consumption in China and India. The new agreements he signed with Gazprom guarantee long-term supplies of Russian gas to Europe. The German guarantor of the stability of procurement in Russia, like thirty years ago, is E.ON Ruhrgas, which has once again secured its role as Gazprom’s largest client.
“This year we have taken a big step forward and at the same time defined the guidelines for three future projects with Gazprom. We are significantly expanding supply cooperation through the extension of contracts and the purchase of new volumes of natural gas. The participation of E.ON Ruhrgas in the development of the Yuzhno-Russkoye field in exchange for E.ON's assets in Hungary allows both parties to exercise business activity, increasing the value chain. Thanks to the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, we are creating a direct connection between Siberian fields and the European sales market and thereby making a contribution to ensuring the reliability of natural gas supplies to Europe. Nord Stream will diversify transport routes for Russian natural gas to Europe. Russian gas in the future will be supplied both via the traditional route through Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to Bavarian Waidhaus, and directly through Nord Stream to Greifswald, on the German coast of the Baltic Sea,” said Burkhard Bergmann in an interview with a Vremya Novostey correspondent "
The chief of E.ON Ruhrgas emphasized that his company decided to increase gas purchases in Russia in a situation of uncertainty regarding the development of future consumption in Europe. “Many people talk about the reliability of supply to Germany and Europe and the development of energy partnerships. We are acting! - he said. At the same time, Mr. Bergmann sees the special role of Nord Stream in the fact that with its help it will be possible in the future to reliably compensate for declining purchases from Western European sources of natural gas. This is the main reason why Germany in particular and Europe in general will remain attractive and important markets for Russian natural gas.