Speaking at the European Business Summit, Piebalgs surprisingly complimented his fellow panelist, Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov, saying that the many Lukoil filling stations in Brussels sell the cheapest petrol.
"If I go now with my car, I will go to the Lukoil petrol station, because it's the best price in Brussels. So it's not true that we are hampering Russian investment," Piebalgs said.
Lukoil, which has recently taken over the entire activity of Conoco-Philips in Belgium and Luxembourg - 157 filling stations - indeed claims that it sells the cheapest petrol on the market. However, if prices are strictly compared, then this is not always true, as can be seen on a specialised website.
Alekperov had attacked the EU for keeping mutual investment in oil and gas sector very low. But Piebalgs countered this, saying that the two sides sometimes had "misunderstandings", but not in all areas.
"Where we have more understanding is [in the field of] electricity, with Russia following exactly in the same way as we do, and opened its market, and we have E.On, Fortum and Enel investing billions in the system, because they know how this market functions. On gas we have different approaches – well, let's find where this misunderstanding comes [from]," Piebalgs said.
Business or politics?
Alekperov sounded more like a politician than a businessman. He often said "we" for Russia, as he was his country's official spokesperson.
"We are not against a common European policy in energy affairs. But we cannot fail to notice that such a policy is based on a stand-off between the EU, as a major consumer, and Russia as a supplier," Alekperov said.
He listed a number of "conditions" which in his view could overcome tensions, similar of those of "past decades".
"Mutual confidence and readiness for dialogue, encouragement of mutual investment, absence of intermediaries, information openness, and readiness from both sides to look for new forms of cooperation," were the prerequisites he listed.
Alekperov advocated the establishment of "fair oil prices".
"Maybe the time has come to put in place new price-setting mechanisms. Such will help reduce the financial bubble and increase the efficiency of markets," he said.
The Russian CEO also called for long-term contracts between suppliers and clients. "Only the coming closer of consumers and suppliers can prevent the transformation of the global economic crisis into a global energy crisis. This into a full extent applies to the relations between Russia and the EU," the Lukoil chief warned.
Nabucco controversy
Piebalgs was challenged with questions on whether the EU was abandoning the Nabucco pipeline project, as that impression had remained following the latest EU summit (EurActiv 18/03/09). He made the point that the public was becoming obsessed with Nabucco, the importance of which was in fact minor.
"I think there is too much focus on Nabucco. Because the basic change is not there. The basic change is energy efficiency, in renewable energy, in EU market consolidations. Nabucco is just one stream of 30 bcm of gas – it's peanuts! We consume 600 [bcm]. That means it's a good diversification source, but it's not the solution," Piebalgs said.
For his part, Alekperov repeated the Russian position that "there is no gas to fill the Nabucco pipe" and the effort would be tantamount to "wasting billions".
"Russia has gas. Take Yamal gas fields with 13 trillion cubic metres," Alekperov said. He was referring to Russia's biggest natural gas reserves, yet to be developed on a far-away peninsula in Siberia. In the local language, 'Yamal' means "the end of the world".
But he warned that Gazprom would not develop these gas fields before it has long-term contracts with stable customers.
