ST. PETERSBURG, November 1. /TASS/. The global gas market will remain "narrow" for Western countries amid its current volatility," Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said during the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.
"We have been working for quite a long time in one paradigm. Now, without a doubt, the global gas market is transforming before our eyes. We understand it as a deformation of the relations that have developed over decades between traditional consumers and gas suppliers," Miller said.
According to him, this deformation occurred quite quickly. "We believe that the reasons for this deformation are unfair competition. Then there are unbelievably egregious mistakes by regulators in gas-consuming countries and geopolitical instability. As a result, the global gas market has become extremely volatile, large regional markets are highly volatile, and, accordingly, we have this instability. Meanwhile, the gas market for Western countries will remain narrow," he said.
Miller added that gas demand will "steadily increase" in the coming decades.
Earlier, CEO of the French energy company TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, said that the European gas market is now under pressure, and any incident such as strikes by LNG industry workers in Australia or a halt in production at a field in Israel could raise gas prices.