Gazprom Refuses sharing its Europe-bound Gas Export Monopoly -RIA

Allowing Novatek (NVTK.ME) and Russia's top oil producer Rosneft to export gas to Europe would not be in Russia's national interest, RIA news agency quoted Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom as saying on Saturday.

"If we talk about our European (export) policy, about a single export channel, these are our national interests. So why should we create competition among ourselves," RIA quoted Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Valery Golubev as saying.

Rosneft and Russian independent gas producer Novatek have asked the Energy Ministry to grant them access gas exports to Europe via pipelines, industry sources and media reports said.

"There are these requests, so what? We must understand if we should do this. Who will benefit from it? Rosneft? Yes. Is it good for the Russian state? No," RIA cited Golubev as saying.

(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Toby Chopra)