Estonia’s Parliament will accept a bill allowing the separation of AS Eesti Gaas’s natural gas sales and transmission divisions in two years to reduce dependence on Russia’s Gazprom.
A draft bill requiring Eesti Gaas AS, an Estonian natural gas company which imports and sells natural gas, to split the ownership of sales and networks by Jan. 1, 2013 is “90 percent ready,” said Igor Grazin, a lawmaker with Prime Minister Andrus Ansip’s Reform Party, in a interview with Bloomberg.
Reuters is reporting that Russia and Poland have agreed a new gas supply deal conforming to EU rules.
The deal should ease worries that Europe, which takes gas through the Polish pipeline, will face shortages during the coming winter.
Russia and Poland agreed on to increase gas delivery to Poland and its transit to Germany through the Yamal pipeline last year but was not signed due to worries that it was incompatible with European Union laws.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will meet his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie next week on the sidelines of an ASEAN conference in Hanoi as the United States and China move to end an eight-month freeze on military exchanges.
Gates is reportedly planning to travel to China early next year.
“I think we are efforting to put together a meeting of that sort when Secretary Gates and his Chinese counterpart are attending the ASEAN-plus ministerial in Hanoi early next week,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters.