Gazprom's export strategies under the institutional constraint of the Russian gas market

Russia and its main gas company Gazprom, essential suppliers for the European gas market, are today at the centre of the debate surrounding the security of the European Union's gas supply. A variety of factors have focussed interest on the question of Gazprom's industrial strategies and more precisely :the Gazprom's ability to meet its future contractual commitments. The gas market liberalisation in Europe is bringing about some significant changes in the relations (especially contractual ones) that the EU had established with its main natural gas suppliers. The aim of this paper is to throw some light on how European gas market liberalisation is affecting and changing the strategies of one of the EU's essential gas suppliers, namely Russia. The export policies developed by Gazprom are however largely conditioned by the particular characteristics (essentially institutional) of its domestic market, not only in terms of supply and demand but also prices". It is important to take into account this aspect in order to understand the Russian gas export strategy.