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PRIMARY ENERGY

ownership of gas takes place increases. And the such reforms in the professional community. The-
last condition will be the possibility of hedging gas re were some hopes on the development of the
transactions with derivative financial instruments. Concept for the Development of the Internal Gas
Additionally, gas business in Russia was strongly Market (Concept), which the Government of the
influenced by the change of the gas markets com- Russian Federation in 2014 was going to develop
petition content. Along with competition with alter- as part of the adjustment of key strategic docu-
native fuels (including RES), competition between ments of the industry - the General Scheme for the
gas from different sources of supply, which is de- development of the gas industry and the Eastern
veloping in various directions, including-the geo- Gas Program.
graphy of supplies; LNG vs. pipeline gas; traditio-
nal vs. non-traditional gas; a new type of intra-fuel Today there is a wide
competition is emerging – between suppliers of
various gas energy products (gas energy products understanding that the current
competition), which most fully meet the needs of “RF natural gas market structure
consumers in the areas, conditions and terms of is outdated and could hardly
delivery.
deliver solution for many
Transformation complex problems that the
of the Russian gas market: development of Russian gas
results and prospects industry is facing
It was assumed that the Concept would address
Over the past more than 20 years of modern histo- the following issues: the new legal and regulatory
ry, the gas market of Russia, as noted above, has framework establishing the rules for non-discrimi-
undergone significant transformations. Some of natory access to UGSS and non-UGSS systems;
them were internally contradictory or not so consi- increasing transparency of gas pricing and crea-
stent, in some part, they were too late, or they were ting equal conditions for all of its participants; pre-
premature and did not correspond to the traditio- venting subsidies by domestic consumers of gas
nal institutional structures. Despite this, their gene- transportation for export; plans to expand the gas
ral intention was de-monopolization of the industry transportation infrastructure in the eastern direction
and the market. Today, among key stakeholders, and to develop gasification of the regions. Howe-
there is a wide, but not clear enough, understan- ver, this work has been suspended.
ding that the current RF natural gas market struc- The new version of the RF 2035 Energy Strategy
3
ture is outdated and could hardly deliver solution does not provide for changes in the management
for many complex problems that the development model of the Unified Gas Supply System, althou-
of Russian gas industry is facing now and will face gh it suggests increasing the transparency of
in the next decade. Among these problems is the Gazprom’s activities as its owner and operator. The
growing competition of suppliers in the main world proposed steps include improving the regulation of
energy markets in the context of slowdown in gas gas transportation through main gas pipelines and
consumption, especially in Europe. UGS facilities, increasing the transparency of ac-
However, there is no consensus on the direction of cess to the GTS and the feasibility of tariff setting.
With regard to gas exports, the monopoly (single
export channel) will remain in the pipeline gas. Ho-
wever, the Energy Strategy admits that, if necessa-
ry, the issue of the possibility of gas supplies from
independent producers through a single export
channel will be considered. A different approach
is declared in relation to LNG. Liberalization of its
exports will continue if mechanisms are in place
capable to prevent competition between Russian
pipeline gas and LNG in the global energy markets.
In terms of LNG export volumes, the Energy Stra-
tegy sets specific targets of 46 - 65 million tons in
2024 and 80 - 140 million tons - in 2035. At the
same time, there are no such targets for pipeline
gas. It is only said that Russia will occupy the 1st or
2nd place in the world in the export of pipeline gas
within the mentioned time frames.
In view of the fact that the movement of the Rus-
sian gas market along the path of developing com-
petition has not yet become irreversible, we see the
prospects of transformation in two possible scena-
rios: the movement towards the consolidation of

48 48 Impiantistica Italiana - Gennaio-Febbraio 2021