Gazprom's Competitor Novatek Starts Gas Supplies to Germany

Russia's largest independent gas producer Novatek has started gas deliveries to the German Energie Baden-W?rttemberg AG (EnBW).

"Yes, we have the supplies started. They are profitable ", Novatek Deputy CEO Mikhail Popov told journalists on Tuesday, as cited by German media.

Novatek, which is deemed a privately owned competitor of Russian state-affiliated gas company Gazprom, started its supplies to EnBW as of October 1, 2012.

According to Mikhail Popov, Novatek considers such new contracts in the future. Gazprom has had a monopoly on Russian natural gas exports but Novatek's trading with natural gas does not violate the monopoly introduced by the Russian government in 2006, as the private company purchase the fuel form Gazprom and re-sells.

Novatek signed in August 2012 a ten-year contract for the supply of about two billion cubic meters of gas a year to EnBW.

EnBW had announced in July that they had reached an agreement with a foreign producer for gas supplies as of October 2012, worth about EUR 600 M a year.

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