Citing his support for development of a competitive natural gas market in Europe, Norway's minister of petroleum and energy, Tord Lien, said a well functioning market in Europe is crucial for the maximisation of Norwegian assets. “Gas is there if Europe needs it.”

With more or less fanfare, several countries in the region have at one time or another announced their intention to become a gas hub. Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania have generally been the most vocal, though neither ever provided the specifics of what their respective hub proposal looks like.

“Russia will have to struggle for its market share one way or another,” said Andrey Polischuk, an oil and gas analyst at Raiffeisenbank AO in Moscow. Gazprom is gaining market muscle due to low oil now but may need changes to keep the price in line with competitors when crude rebounds, he said.

LNG cannot reach every corner of Europe: there may be a lot of under-used capacity in import terminals in the Iberian peninsula but these are not useful for security of supply in mainland Europe except where they have reloading facilities. There is very little transport capacity overland into France.

The first was that Europe has a multiplicity of suppliers and that, in terms of gas at least, its energy security is good; the second is that Statoil does not pursue a market share policy but instead focuses on the need for a predictable market environment to enable it to maintain current levels of piped gas deliveries to Europe for the next 20 years or so.

The first shipment of Iranian crude oil to the European Union in more than three years is poised to depart as soon as Monday, Iranian officials said.

Such a strategy may be economically rational for Gazprom: already-low prices in the European gas market mean it could relatively easily push prices to a level at which it would be unprofitable to ship LNG from the US — and in doing so defend its market share in a region which accounts for the bulk of its profits.

Medvedev also downplayed an expected influx of liquefied natural gas to Europe from the United States, saying Gazprom's gas would be cheaper.

Currently Greece imports gas from Gazprom at a price of between $4.6 and 4.7 /mn Btu, Kitsakos said; from Turkey's Botas at $5.9/mn Btu; and from Algeria's Sonatrach at $6.5/mn Btu. Gas at the Dutch TTF is around $6/mn Btu. However, the price Cheniere will ask for gas is rumoured to be around $7/mn Btu.

European stocks deepened a monthly rout as disappointing earnings reports reignited investor concern about global growth prospects and oil prices resumed their downward trend.