Gazprom deputy chief Alexander Medvedev on Friday chided the European Commission for its attitude toward the company's South Stream project.
"The European Commission is chilly, if not ice cold, toward the project, saying it knows too little about it," Medvedev said at an energy conference in Brussels, Interfax reported. "The situation is strange, from my point of view. First, nobody stops them from requesting the data, either from us or the European Union member countries."
Medvedev made the comment at the conference titled 'Energy Dialog: Russia-European Union. The gas aspect,' which was organized by the Russian Gas Association and Eurogas, a European gas industry association.
Medvedev reiterated that the South Stream, a pipeline that Gazprom and its foreign partners want to lay under the Black Sea from Russia to Europe, would leave enough room for any other competing projects.
He apparently referred to Nabucco, a plan by a group of European energy companies to build a pipeline that would carry gas to Europe from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan or Iraq.
Medvedev insisted that natural gas consumption on the continent would rise so much that "perhaps, even more of these projects will need to happen."
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