Gazprom has not surprisingly used its negotiating stance rather aggressively. In February rumours of a Centrica takeover by Gazprom caused the trade secretary in the UK to get jittery. Lawyers were brought in to look at ways in which the takeover rules could be changed to reflect the fact that the UK government did not want to lose a national jewel in the crown. Gazprom, denied the takeover, but it is more clear that Gazprom were more interested than they originally suggested.

Recently Gazprom have annouced that if European governments look to stifle their attempts to grow in new markets then they will divert their large gas supplies elsewhere. It is no surprise that this is something that the market would not tolerate and so the Europeans are becoming beholden to the Russians ironically it may be better for the main UK gas produced to be owned by the Russians as the Russians will look after there own sooner than others.

The other irony is that as the UK has been the lead player in deregulating markets they have seen their utilities bought by foreign competitors firstly the Americans and more lately the Germans and other Europeans. It seems unfair that the threat of the Russians has brought this general issue to a head for the UK government.