EU to apply competition rules to Gazprom

The European Union said on Tuesday it would apply the same competition rules to Russian gas giant Gazprom as to any European firm, taking the company's export monopoly into account.
In a letter released in Brussels, European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Austrian Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein, on behalf of the EU's presidency, said Gazprom's status as the exclusive exporter of gas from Russia to the EU would be "a significant factor" in a competition review.
"The rules applied to Gazprom will be no different to those applied to other companies, notably under the competition rules of the EU treaty, and ... they will be applied in exactly the same manner," said the letter to Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.
The EU officials said they were responding to talk in Russia of discrimination against the state-controlled company. Gazprom chief Alexei Miller warned European ambassadors last week that Russia could divert its gas supplies to Asia if EU countries barred his company from entering the retail gas market in the 25-nation bloc.
President Vladimir Putin repeated the threat during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel a few days later. Gazprom is seeking a stake in British utility Centrica Plc amid conflicting signals about whether Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will permit or block a deal.
Blair's official spokesman said last week the prime minister believed in free trade and energy liberalisation but within normal regulations to ensure fair play and fair treatment of customers.
The EU is demanding reciprocity from Russia and pressing Moscow to ratify an Energy Charter Treaty that would oblige it to open its vast gas pipeline network to third-party suppliers, something the Russians have adamantly refused to do.
Piebalgs and Bartenstein stressed in the letter the importance the EU placed on ratification of the charter and the transit protocol as a basis for long-term management of the European energy market, transit rights and third-party access. "But there is clearly no question of any discrimination," a Commission statement on the letter said.