Europe has a gas fetish, Gazprom says

MOSCOW, June 29 (UPI) -- The European effort at energy diversification is reasonable, but its aggression is pushing it into reckless territory, Gazprom officials say.

Alexei Miller, the chief executive at Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, said European courting of what he described as politically fragile countries for potential energy partnerships was approaching an obsession, the Moscow Times reports.

"That's why Europe's desire to diversify gas suppliers is understandable but shouldn't turn into a fetish," he said.

Europe and Russia are looking for ways to diversify the regional energy sector in the fallout of a January dispute between Kiev and Moscow that brought European gas disruptions for weeks.

Miller warned that if Europe insisted on moving in a unilateral fashion to find alternative energy resources, it may create more problems than it solves.

"There will be more diversification but less stability and reliability," he said.

Russia is pushing for its Nord Stream pipeline to Germany and South Stream pipeline to southern Europe as Ukrainian alternatives while Europe pushes for its Nabucco pipeline in an effort to ease its dependency on Russian gas.

Miller told shareholders that his company may reach "new important deals" with Azerbaijan, however, which could undermine Nabucco, which relies heavily on Caspian suppliers.