Why fight? Our man Putin says he'll send them both more gas.
<blockquote>UPDATE 2-Russia should switch energy focus to Asia-Putin <http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nL26468215&imageid=&cap=>
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By Richard Balmforth
MOSCOW, April 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin, taking a tough line as Europeans voice alarm at Russian domination of their oil and gas markets, threatened on Wednesday to switch the focus of Moscow's energy policy to Asia.
Putin's truculent remarks were the latest sign of Kremlin anger at moves by European consumers of its oil and gas to limit Russian plans to expand into their markets, particularly by taking over distribution assets.
They further politicised the issue of energy security which will be a key topic in July at the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations in Russia's second city, St Petersburg.
Speaking in the Siberian city of Tomsk, just hours before welcoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin said Moscow was continually coming up against "unfair competition" on world markets.
"Despite the great demand for energy resources, any excuses are being used to limit us in the north, in the south, in the west," he told a local meeting discussing Siberian development.
"We must look for markets, fit into the processes of global development. I have in mind the countries of the Asian-Pacific region which are developing at great speed and need to cooperate with us," Putin said.
Putin has made no secret of planning to use Russia's vast oil and gas reserves to turn it into an energy superpower and help it regain the global clout it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
His six years in the Kremlin have been marked by massive expansion inside Russia of two state-controlled energy flagships, oil firm Rosneft and giant Gazprom, the latter now supplying a quarter of Europe's gas.
KEY PIPELINE
Putin said the construction of a giant oil pipeline that will carry 1.6 million barrels a day to the Pacific coast was a key project to allow Russia to diversify its supplies.
"One of our biggest projects is the pipeline system to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. We have to struggle against unfair competition too often," he said.
Europeans have been particularly alarmed at the political implications of Russian plans for Gazprom to take over companies which distribute its gas in Europe.
Many have cited Russia's gas pricing dispute with Ukraine over the New Year, which led to Moscow cutting supplies, as proof the Kremlin was ready to use energy supplies as a political weapon.
Europe's fears about the stability of Russian gas supplies grew last week when Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chief executive, threatened to ship gas elsewhere if its European expansion plans were blocked.
On the surface, doing business with China and other Asian markets makes sense for Moscow because their appetite for energy supplies is boundless and political obstacles are fewer.
For now, Putin's threat to switch the focus of energy policy eastward is an empty one because Russia cannot physically divert oil and gas flows away from Europe.
But this will change if, as planned, Russia builds the oil pipeline to China and Japan by 2009 and two large gas pipelines to China in the next decade.
The Europeans and the Russians have accused each other of politicising an economic dispute.
At the Russian Economic Forum in London this week, Gazprom rebuffed pressure from the European Union to surrender its monopoly on gas exports to Europe.
The EU wants Russia to ratify the International Energy Charter and a transit protocol, which would effectively require it to allow third party access to Gazprom's jealously guarded export pipeline network.
Gazprom's deputy CEO, Alexander Medvedev, rejected the treaty as a "stillborn document" and urged European companies to sign long-term contracts to lock into guaranteed supplies.</blockquote>
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>