Berlin/Dushanbe - Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko
said Friday that Russia was doing its utmost to ensure a stable
supply of oil to Europe despite a diplomatic fallout in the aftermath
of the Georgia conflict.
Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said maintaning credibility as a
'reliable' oil supplier was the priority, news agency Interfax
reported.
'Our position is that we will do everything we can so the Druzhba
can keep working stably and supply enough oil for European
consumers,' Shmatko told journalists in the Tajik capital of
Dushanbe, referring to the name of the main supply pipeline.
His comments came amid worries in Europe that Russia might use its
control over oil supplies as a political tool, such as in the past
when it once cut off the flow of oil to the Ukraine in a pricing
dispute.
Earlier Friday, the British paper The Daily Telegraph said that an
unnamed government official had warned clients to prepare for a
possible cut-off in shipments to Poland and Germany.
'It is believed that executives from lead-producer Lukoil have
been put on weekend alert,' the British daily said.
It said it had been informed by a 'high-level business source'
that the executives had been 'told to be ready to cut off supplies as
soon as Monday.'
The German government, however, has not discerned any signs that
Russia might cut oil deliveries to Europe as part of its response to
the crisis over Georgia, a spokesman said Friday.
'We firmly assume that contracts will be adhered to,' government
spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. 'There are no signs thus far that
contracts and approved deliveries will not be adhered to.'
Moscow has been ostracized by Western leaders after driving back a
Georgian offensive to re-take its separatists region and, with
Russian troops still in the area, recognizing the province as
independent.
European Union (EU) heads were to hold an emergency summit on
Monday where Wilhelm said Chancellor Angela Merkel's aim was that the
summit would send 'a clear political signal of determination.'
Wilhelm said the EU was united in backing the six-point plan put
forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on August 12 during
visits to Moscow and Tbilisi and subsequently signed by Russian
President Dimitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili.
Georgia's territorial integrity had to be respected, he said.
Merkel phoned Medvedev on Thursday to make clear she saw Russian
recognition of the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and
Georgia as 'absolutely not acceptable.'
In response to a question, Wilhelm said the chancellor had not
been in contact over the past week with Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin, seen by many observers as the driving force behind
the new hardline approach from the Kremlin.
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