BRUSSELS, May 11 (UPI) -- An expert on Russian economics says European energy consumers of Russian natural gas face big price hikes in the next few years.
Eric Berglof, the chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said acute shortages of Russian supplies and growing tensions between the Kremlin and the European Union virtually guarantee future price shocks from the state-run OAO Gazprom energy giant, the Guardian reported Thursday.
Berglof told the European Enterprise Institute that 70 percent of production at Gazprom, the world's third-largest energy group, came from fields where gas was running out, while the Russian energy sector needed a $700 billion investment over the next 20 years -- much of it from foreign interests denied access to the Russian pipeline network.
He warned that without serious reforms of both Gazprom and Russia's energy sector, prices for domestic use and export could double by 2010.
