Russian ministry partially supports gas price liberalization

MOSCOW, Dec 6 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Energy Ministry partially supports liberalization of natural gas prices but thinks that the plan, which abolishes state regulation of wholesale prices, introduces a market pricing regime, and changes approaches to transportation tariffs, does not adequately represent the situation, Deputy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said on Tuesday.

“The ministry has a position on it, we support it in something, but in some other things we think that the pilot project’s results may not be fully representative. I mean there are regions that are as close as possible to the production regions. The consumption structure there is understandable, including payment capacity and a high demand,” he said.

But such experiments should be carried out in regions that differ in pricing and industry conditions. “Still, this experiment may be useful,” he said.

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