A senior official from the International Energy Agency has warned that Russia may struggle to fulfill its gas export commitments to Europe because of delays caused by its aggressive nationalization plans, the Moscow Times has reported.
<p>According to IEA deputy executive director William Ramsay, the Kremlin's policy of pressuring international energy companies developing Russian assets to hand over significant stakes in their projects to Russian control is causing delays that could disrupt supplies to Europe.<br /><br />Mr Ramsay argues that Russia's preoccupation with grabbing major stakes in projects under development is delaying many from coming online on schedule and that this is having a knock-on effect on Russia's ability to meet its gas export commitments.<br /><br />Gazprom exerting its monopoly position has delayed the coming on-stream of some of Russia's big gas projects, the Moscow Times reported Mr Ramsay as saying.</p>