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MOSCOW, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Russia's largest oil producer
Rosneft asked President Vladimir Putin to allow it to
export 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year via an agent
agreement with pipeline gas exporting monopoly Gazprom
, Kommersant daily said on Friday.
The newspaper cited a letter by Rosneft's head Igor Sechin
to Putin, dated Aug. 13. It said the state budget will get an
additional 37 billion roubles ($500 million) a year thanks to an
increased gas production tax on the overseas supplies.
Rosneft has yet to respond to a Reuters request for
comments.
The oil company and its shareholder BP have long
planned to ship Russian natural gas abroad. Gas prices in Europe
are currently at multi-year highs amid tight supplies and the
economic recovery from the pandemic.
The Kremlin-controlled Gazprom has the monopoly for Russian
natural gas exports via pipelines.
Sechin said in the letter, according to the newspaper, that
the additional gas supplies by Rosneft will facilitate the
removal of the European Union's restrictions on undersea gas
pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 as well as the land
Opal pipeline, which connects with Nord Stream 1.
The proposal was put forward following an Aug. 5 fire at
Gazprom's gas facility in northern Russia, which led to a
decline in Russian gas exports via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.
Supplies have been restored since then.
($1 = 74.0740 roubles)
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Editing
by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
