Apparently, in Russia, it is strictly forbidden to sell gas without the government permission, even if it's your own gas. The Gazprom management has to solve such issues in advance due to cumbersome bureaucracy. So, state-owned company Gazprom asks the Russian government permission to sell its own gas at the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. To put some clarity into it, we are talking not about people's gas or even state gas but about the Gazprom property.
That's how head of the state-owned company Alexey Miller refers to the Russian national wealth, as he personally told in a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Miller complained about his competitors, saying that independent gas producers do not comply with the established restrictions and dare to compete with Gazprom. For now, the company can sell not more than 17.5 billion cubic meters of gas on the Exchange a year. A similar limit is set for other producers, but they ignore the allocated quotas. In addition, Miller voiced concerns that Gazprom cannot make discounts on gas for its customers, while its competitors can, and this affects the share of the gas monopoly on the Russian market.
In other words, reading such letters, one always has more questions than answers. How can a market monopolist complain at all, especially on allegedly unfair competition? Another thing that causes resentment among gas monopolists is the fact that even such competition still forces sellers to cut gas prices. In Miller's opinion, this situation is unacceptable. He thinks that gas prices must rise.
