Rosneft calls for end of Gazprom export monopoly

Gazprom monopoly: Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft has asked the government to end Gazprom’s decade-long exclusive right to export pipeline gas, the RIA Novosti reported yesterday, citing a letter from Rosneft to Russia’s Energy Ministry. Rosneft also proposed
splitting Gazprom into two companies, with one focussing on  production operations  and the other on transportation. According to the news agency, Rosneft wants to look into the possibility of opening up the gas export market to other  companies other than Gazprom as early as next year. The Kremlin  has already granted approval for Rosneft and Russia’s second-largest  gas producer Novatek to export liquefied natural gas sometime in the future.
Rosnef thas almost certainly been prompted to call for the end of Gazprom’s monopoly by the detrimental effect that international sanctions has been having on its own operations in the last year. It is being reported, meanwhile that Gazprom’s output in June fell by 19% in June compared to the same month in 2014  to a record monthly low of 24.7 bn m and by 12.9% for Q2 2015.