A Gazprom spokesman on Monday dismissed concerns that a growth in the production of shale gas would pose a threat to the company’s foreign sales, voicing the gas giant’s first comment on the prospect.

After gas prices surged last year and early this year, many European gas companies have begun studying the U.S. technology for producing shale gas, which may be a cheaper source of fuel.

“The speculations that shale gas is cheaper than the Russian gas are not true,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said in an interview with Russia Today television.

Unlike the operation of Gazprom fields, production of shale gas requires continuous investment to maintain the output, Kupriyanov said.

“It’s a big question whether they are going to make such investments now that the price of gas has dropped on the U.S. market,” he said.

Gazprom runs its fields at peak capacity for a long time after making considerable investment at the development stage, Kupriyanov said, implying that the gas will remain competitive in the long term.

The International Energy Agency warned earlier this year that shale gas would be one of the reasons for traditional suppliers to reduce their business in Europe. Gazprom relies on its European exports for the biggest proportion of its profit.

Kupriyanov also said Nord Stream, a pipeline to carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, remained on schedule to start operating in 2011, earlier than the South Stream. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last fall that there was a chance that South Stream, the gas pipeline from Russia to Bulgaria under the Black Sea, would open first.

Kupriyanov said the only risk of disruption in gas transit to Europe across Ukraine comes from the country’s weak fiscal condition and an ongoing presidential campaign for elections next month.“The possibility of some pre-election provocation should not be ruled out,” he said.