The British retail unit of Russian gas giant Gazprom will increase commercial gas sales to end-users in Britain by two-thirds this year, a senior executive told Reuters.
-- Sales to British commercial market to rise 67pc in 2009
-- Aiming up to 20pc of Irish commercial market by end-2010
"In the UK, we will flow 2 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2009," Jon Feingold, managing director of Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail (GM&T Retail), said in an interview. He said 1.2 bcm was sent in 2008 and less than 0.12 bcm in 2007.
Gazprom, which sells Europe a quarter of its gas, sold Britain 15.2 bcm of gas in 2007, making the country its sixth-largest buyer after Ukraine, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Belarus.
Feingold reiterated the firms interest in entering the British household market, but said this could not happen before 2011. "We are reviewing that and its something we always consider but certainly through 2010 our view is just to stand with the commercial industrial market," he said, adding the Irish households market is also being considered.
Both countries commercial markets - "from the fish and chip shops all the way up" - remain the firms main focus at present, he added. The retail subsidiarys wholesale parent firm, Gazprom Marketing & Trading, has been steadily increasing the number of markets it breaks into. Ireland last year became the 23rd European country to which it supplies gas.
"We did start flowing gas to the end-user commercial market in November and were still building on that ... We have a lot of interest from customers in Ireland," Feingold said.
GM&T Retail also aims to supply 15 percent to 20 percent of the commercial Irish gas market by the end of next year, he said. Like Britain, Ireland will also get its gas via pipelines and Gazprom will have the option of either shipping Russian volumes or gas bought in other European countries.
Irish natural gas demand will rise by an average of 4.4 percent annually through 2020 and is expected to hold a 35 percent share of primary energy demand at that time, its state gas supplier Bord Gais has said.
Analysts have said Ireland and Britains location towards the end of the European gas supply network from Russia makes them most vulnerable should Gazprom halt supplies. But, an extended spat between Russia and transit neighbour Ukraine in January disrupted supplies mostly to eastern and southern Europe.
Feingold also said GM&T Retail would enter the British electricity market in May, with the aim of selling around 500,000 megawatt-hours by the end of 2010.
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