U.S. says Russia would not cut off gas to Europe

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - European dependence on Russian gas is dangerous partly because of future supply shortfalls, not because Russia may cut off supplies over tensions with the West, the U.S. envoy for Eurasian energy diplomacy said on Friday.

"I don't think it would do that (cut off supplies). It hasn't done that to Western Europe in the past and I don't think it's going to do it intentionally," C. Boyden Grey said.

Grey, speaking to reporters at the U.S. embassy in Rome, said he believed the strong U.S. and European response to Russia's brief war with Georgia in August had reduced the risk that Russia posed to its neighbours.

"I don't think we anticipate more trouble," Grey said.

"What we're doing now is trying to make sure that there is no inhibition on the part of either the producing countries in the Caspian or the transit or the consuming countries ... to see greater hydrocarbons come through to the West."

A big problem for Europe, in Gray's view, is an overdependence on supplies from Russia while investment falls.

"We see a reduction in the development that is taking place, a potential reduction in their own oil and gas production, which could hurt Europe in the not too distant future if it's not remedied," he said.

He expressed confidence that the Nabucco pipeline, which is supported by the European Union as a way of reducing its heavy dependence on Russian gas, would be built "eventually."