Russia to step up energy deliveries to Europe

Russian energy sales to Europe can be seen as a factor of this country's stable development, Russian Energy Industry Minister Igor Yusufov said at a meeting of G8 energy ministers in Detroit. He noted that increased energy shipments from Russia would call upon the European Union for an adequate reply with investment, technologies and managerial experience as well as unimpeded transit of energy resources across Europe. The Russian minister warned European countries being now busy with liberalization of their energy markets against attempts to revise long-term energy supply contracts in effect and declared in favour of retaining facilities for a continued conclusion of such contracts. Igor Yusufov pronounced himself against imparting a political tinge to the process of selecting energy transportation routes. "Recognizing the principle of variability of energy transportation routes meeting the requirements of reliability, legal transparence, economic targets and ecological safety, we are insisting on dropping political bias at their choice," said Igor Yusufov. The energy industry ministry reports that the Russia of 2001 generated 888,400 million kW/h of electricity and extracted 348,100,000 tons of oil, 581 million cubic metres of gas and 269,300,000 tons of coal. In 2001, Russia exported 131,600 million cubic metres of gas and 138 million tons of oil to the far-abroad states and Baltic republics, and 48,600 million cubic metres of gas, 23,700,000 tons of oil and 5,200,000 tons of coal to the CIS countries.