Gazprom set out a vaulting vision of its future status as the world’s most powerful energy company on Thursday as it belittled Opec, saying the oil producers’ cartel had in effect lost control of the market.Alexey Miller told the Financial Times that the world was undergoing “a great surge in oil and gas prices . . . which will end with prices at a radically new level”. He added that even Opec had no real influence on prices. “Not a single decision has been passed of late that would really influence the global oil market.”
Mr Miller continued: “In the coming years Gazprom will be not just a major company in the world, but the most influential in the energy business,” adding that its target was to reach a market capitalisation of $1,000bn.
He also said interÂnational energy companies should invest in Russia only alongside state-controlled companies, such as Gazprom, if they wanted to succeed. He stressed that the Russian market was increasingly attractive to Gazprom as domestic gas prices rose, but also talked of plans for expansion in the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa. “We see North America as a region of our strategic interests,” he said, arguing that Gazprom was “creating a new configuration of gas supplies” to the US and Canada.
Gazprom hopes to serve the North American market from 2014 with liquefied natural gas from its proposed Shtokman project off RussiaÂ’s north coast.
| More at the link, including about a pending Nigeria deal. |