Europe Could Face Higher Prices, Says Gazprom Chief

BERLIN--Europe could face higher natural gas prices if Brussels presses on in its effort to reduce Russia's energy-market power, the chief executive officer of Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas company, said on Monday.

Speaking at an energy conference, Alexei Miller said that his company was prepared to go along with European Union efforts to more closely integrate its energy market and reduce its dependence on Russia. However, he said that an attempt to negotiate a single price for Russian gas across the EU, as some European leaders have been calling for as a way to reduce Gazprom's market power, would lead to higher prices for many countries.

"If the European Commission will insist on equal prices then of course, as you understand, a common price isn't the lowest price," Mr. Miller said. "It will most obviously be the highest price."

Gazprom and its pricing policy is under increasing pressure from the EU. The bloc's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has said that she will soon bring charges against Gazprom in an antitrust investigation which is examining whether the company has been demanding unfairly high prices from some EU countries.

Last month, EU leaders also endorsed the construction of a so-called energy union across the 28-country bloc.

. In addition to exploring alternative sources of energy, for instance by importing more liquefied natural gas, the EU may also create tighter oversight of the contacts governments and private companies sign with Russia and Gazprom. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, believes that improved transparency of these contracts would bring down gas prices, which in many countries are still linked to the price of oil.

Mr. Miller appeared to be betting that major European countries, currently benefiting from relatively cheap Russian gas, would put pressure on Brussels to go easy on Gazprom. Germany currently pays some of Europe's lowest prices for natural gas from Russia, a benefit that would be at risk if Brussels demanded uniform prices, Mr. Miller said.

The commission declined to comment on Mr. Miller's speech.

While warning of higher prices, Mr. Miller also struck conciliatory notes. He promised to work within the framework of any new rules the commission adopts and said that a new pipeline to Turkey, called Turkish Stream, would function in accordance with European rules requiring companies to open up their gas pipelines to other suppliers.

"We are ready to work with the European Commission," Mr. Miller said. "We will work according to the rules offered by the Europeans."

Mr. Miller also voiced confidence that his company's pricing dispute with Ukraine, which has now dragged on for more than a year, would be resolved. But EU-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine that had been scheduled to be held in Berlin on Monday were abruptly postponed late last week because "not all technical questions" had been answered, the European Commission said last Friday.

Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this article.

Write to Anton Troianovski at [e-mail]

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