RusEnergy

23.09.2006 - MosNews - Russian President Vladimir Putin moved on Saturday to allay Western fears over Russia's intentions towards European aerospace group EADS and offered the prospect of more gas for Europe, saying Russia was a reliable energy partner, the Reuters news agency reports. Putin's remarks at a joint news conference with his French counterpart Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel followed a meeting between the three leaders where aviation and Western worries about energy security were in focus. France has billed the meeting, the latest in an informal series that began in 1998 between Chirac, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, as a chance to exchange views. As well as energy security, attention at the three-way summit has been focused on Russia's desire to join the core group behind EADS after it acquired a 5 percent stake in the flagship European aerospace group earlier this month. Shorn of Soviet-era debt and flush with oil revenues, a newly confident Moscow has sought to create industrial champions in energy and other strategic sectors, notably aerospace and defense. EADS bosses have welcomed technical cooperation but firmly rebuffed talk that Russia might become a core shareholder. But Putin said the West had nothing to fear. "As far as the 5 percent stake is concerned, it is not a sign of some sort of aggressive behavior by the Russian side; it is a play on the share market and the Russian bank saw a favorable deal and took advantage of it," Putin said. "We do not intend to use these shares to change the institutional situation in EADS but we are ready for partnership," he told the news conference. Worries about Moscow using its energy resources as a political weapon resurfaced in a standoff with Western oil companies over huge oil and gas projects in Russia's remote Sakhalin region. Russia, which caused deep alarm in Europe last winter by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine, has put the brakes on energy projects in Russia operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. Some in the market see the move as an attempt to increase the Kremlin's stake in those projects. Putin said that Russia was a reliable partner and said natural gas giant Gazprom was considering exporting gas to Europe from its giant Shtokman gas project. "I can inform you that Gazprom is looking at that and the decision to do that could be taken in the near future," he said. "If at the moment Russia exports about 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe, from Shtokman alone we can export between 25 and 45 billion cubic meters," he said. He said the reserves in Shtokman could last between 50 and 70 years.