Putin Hails End of 'Cheap Gas' Era

Pipeline Politics: Putin Hails End of 'Cheap Gas' Era

If Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has his way, your Gazprom bill will soon be going up. Despite fast-falling oil prices, he claims Europe will soon be hit with the bill for 'sharply' rising gas field development costs.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says European consumers will have to get used to surging natural gas prices. 'The expenses necessary for developing fields are rising sharply,' the Russian government head told attendees at a meeting of gas-exporting nations in Moscow on Tuesday.

'This means that despite the current problems in finances the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end,' he added in his keynote speech."