REUTERS
A meeting of the Government Commission on the Fuel and Energy Complex with Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield any concrete results for market participants and the authorities, with no substantial discussion of problematic issues taking place at all, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
It is reported that the participants of the meeting were openly frustrated with the fact that an attempt to hold any meaningful debate on the tax issue failed.
Meanwhile, the Russian Energy Ministry intends to be able to compensate for a sharp increase in the tax burden on oil companies in 2016.
The subject of gas market liberalization, which was actively debated at the previous Commission meeting, saw only a modest development.
Read alsoLatvian ministers slam North Stream-2Chairman of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev proposed establishing the gas transportation system (GTS) as a separate subsidiary of Gazprom. There are different interpretations of the president's opinion on such a proposal, but any serious transformations are not on the table anyway. Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russia's president, did say that the market liberalization and the GTS detachmentwere not the subject of discussion of the Commission.
Gazprom representatives ignored the meeting. While some members of the Commission were prepared to discuss the necessity of Gazprom splitting, its CEO, Alexei Miller, was holding a videoconference, in which the Russian president also participated, on the launch of the construction of the Ukhta-Torzhok-2 gas pipeline that would ensure gas deliveries into the Nord Stream-2 transportation system.
Read alsoTurkey files gas price claim against GazpromComparing expectations of the market participants and companies before the meeting, the final outcome of the Commission's discussion looks absolutely disappointing. No decisions were made relative to any significant issues for the oil industry. Concerns of the oil companies regarding the tax bites after 2016 were only formally relieved.