North Pole Resident
09-03-2008, 04:12 PM
If Russia cuts oil and gas supply to EU then this winter they will freez to death...
Brown warns of Russian "energy stranglehold"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00797/gordon_brown_460_797481c.jpg
Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that Russia must not be allowed to subject Europe to an "energy stranglehold" and said NATO should review relations with Moscow in the light of its actions in Georgia. In an article in Sunday's Observer newspaper, Brown said he had spoken to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and told him to expect a determined response when European leaders meet to discuss the Georgia crisis on Monday. The EU meeting in Brussels will debate the bloc's response to Russia's military intervention and its decision to recognise South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states. The Russian incursion has raised fears in the West that an important oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean coast via Georgia could come under Russian control. Brown said he would press European leaders to increase funding to allow EU nations to source energy from the Caspian, reducing dependency on Russia. "No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe," the Observer quoted Brown as saying in a front-page story. In his article, Brown said: "Without urgent action, we risk sleepwalking into an energy dependence on less stable or reliable partners." Russia must play by the rules if it wants to enjoy the benefits of bodies such as the Group of Eight, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organisation, Brown said. "And, in the light of Russian actions, the EU should review -- root and branch -- our relationship with Russia," he said. It may be necessary to exclude Russia when the other G8 nations meet, and NATO's relationship with Moscow must be re-evaluated, Brown said, pledging intensified Western support for Georgia and "others who may face Russian aggression".
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKLU6460620080830
Putin reminds EU of Russia's Pacific oil pipeline
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/050PdAM3r90En/340x.jpg
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia's first oil pipeline to Asia must be completed without delay, underlining Russia's energy clout just hours before European Union leaders meet to discuss Georgia. Russian state-owned news agency RIA said Putin had signed a government order "on speeding the building of phases of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (pipeline) and not allowing delays," while on a visit to the Far East. He was speaking in Kozmino, a giant oil terminal being built on the Pacific coast to take the oil from the pipeline, which is being built by Transneft. Russia, the world's No. 2 oil producer, is fighting back at criticism from the United States and European states for recognizing Georgia's two breakaway regions as independent and sending troops deep into the tiny ex-Soviet nation. EU heads of state are set to meet on Monday at an emergency summit to discuss what to do about Russia, whose energy reserves give the Kremlin significant leverage over major EU economies. Russia's Asian pipeline, which will stretch from Eastern Siberia for thousands of miles to the Pacific coast, has been showcased by the Kremlin as a way to diversify Moscow's dependence on energy sales to the European Union. But the two-stage pipeline has been delayed by a year and building costs have soared as constructors grapple with the wilds of Eastern Siberia, where temperatures regularly fall to 50 degrees Celsius below zero and infrastructure is nonexistent.
PERSONAL CHARGE
Putin, who stepped down as president in May after eight years as Kremlin chief, is in personal charge of the pipeline project and while president he was instrumental in building closer ties with China. The latest launch date for the first part of the pipeline has been set for late 2009. The 1,680-mile pipeline is being built from Taishet in Eastern Siberia's Irkutsk region to Skovorodino on the Amur region near the Chinese border. It will cost more than $12 billion. About the distance between London and Istanbul, the Taishet-Skovorodino part of the pipeline will have a capacity of600,000 barrels per day. The oil terminal at Kozmino is being built where crude will be transported by rail from Skovorodino until a second section of pipeline can be built stretching to the coast. That second section is likely to cost at least another $12 billion, Russian officials have said. The project is a key part of Russia's aim to boost sagging oil production and diversify oil supplies to the booming economies of Asia, where China is hungry for oil to drive its economic transformation. State major Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and Russian oil firms TNK-BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Surgutneftegas (SNGS.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are seen as the main suppliers of the pipeline from the largely untapped fields of East Siberia.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLV15028720080831
Nabucco at risk after crisis in Georgia
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Baku_pipelines.svg/800px-Baku_pipelines.svg.png
The European Union's flagship Nabucco project seems to be up in the air due to the crisis currently pitting Moscow against Tbilisi, according to an analysis on an EU information website published yesterday. While most commentators stop short of saying that the main thrust of the Russian advance in Georgia was pipeline politics, all seem to agree that doubt has been cast on the reliability of Georgia as a major transit country to bring oil and gas supplies to Europe. In particular, the Nabucco gas pipeline is seen as a direct victim of the developments, according to the website, Euractiv.com. Nabucco is a 3,300-kilometer pipeline project that aims to bring gas to Europe from countries other than Russia by transferring natural gas from the Caspian basin to Austria via Turkey and the Balkan states. Turkey supports the Nabucco project as part of plans to seek alternative routes to diversify its energy resources so as not to depend on a single supplier.
Georgian officials have long complained that their country has become a victim of pipeline politics. President Mikheil Saakashvili reportedly claimed that the very fact that Georgia is already home to an oil line, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, or BTC, pipeline, designed with the precise aim of circumventing Russia, was a major reason for the Russian assault. One branch of the BTC, which runs from Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea through Georgia and then on to Turkey's Mediterranean coast for shipment, ends at the Georgian port of Supsa, which was blockaded by the Russian navy during the current crisis. “Russia is showing it controls this corridor,” said Giorgi Vashakmadze, an energy executive in Georgia, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “The Caspian region is wondering what this means for the future.” “After the military conflict with Russia, Georgia cannot be marked on oil and gas maps as a safe transit route, and no amount of support from NATO can change this alteration,” said Pavel K. Baev, research professor at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, as quoted in the Moscow Times.
Regarding the Nabucco project, Ed Chow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies was quoted by the Washington Post as saying Russia had raised serious doubts in the minds of Western lenders and investors that such a pipeline through Georgia would be safe from attack or beyond control of the Kremlin. He added that the pipeline “has always looked more like a diplomats' pipe dream than a viable economic project.” “Its promoters had not only failed to secure supply and transit agreements but also had yet to identify an oil company eager to champion the project and finance the pipeline,” stated Chow. The press agency Forbes also noted that while Russian troops are still in Georgia, the Russian state-controlled natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, has offered to buy all of Azerbaijan's gas exports. If Azerbaijan agrees, it could spell disaster for Western plans to decrease reliance on Russian supplies of natural gas. But, as with Russia's occupation of Georgia, the West will have little opportunity to stop the deal, according to the Forbes analysis.
Source: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=113587
Greece ratifies South Stream deal with Russia
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/wsj_pipelines061508.gif
The Greek parliament voted on Tuesday to ratify an agreement with Russia to build the Greek section of the South Stream gas pipeline. The deal was approved by 264 MPs out of a total of 300. The South Stream project is expected to transport 10 billion cu m of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea to the Balkans and onto other European countries, with the first deliveries scheduled to start in 2013. Apart from Russia and Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Italy are involved in the project.
Source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20080902/116490941.html
Brown warns of Russian "energy stranglehold"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00797/gordon_brown_460_797481c.jpg
Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that Russia must not be allowed to subject Europe to an "energy stranglehold" and said NATO should review relations with Moscow in the light of its actions in Georgia. In an article in Sunday's Observer newspaper, Brown said he had spoken to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and told him to expect a determined response when European leaders meet to discuss the Georgia crisis on Monday. The EU meeting in Brussels will debate the bloc's response to Russia's military intervention and its decision to recognise South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, as independent states. The Russian incursion has raised fears in the West that an important oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean coast via Georgia could come under Russian control. Brown said he would press European leaders to increase funding to allow EU nations to source energy from the Caspian, reducing dependency on Russia. "No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe," the Observer quoted Brown as saying in a front-page story. In his article, Brown said: "Without urgent action, we risk sleepwalking into an energy dependence on less stable or reliable partners." Russia must play by the rules if it wants to enjoy the benefits of bodies such as the Group of Eight, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organisation, Brown said. "And, in the light of Russian actions, the EU should review -- root and branch -- our relationship with Russia," he said. It may be necessary to exclude Russia when the other G8 nations meet, and NATO's relationship with Moscow must be re-evaluated, Brown said, pledging intensified Western support for Georgia and "others who may face Russian aggression".
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKLU6460620080830
Putin reminds EU of Russia's Pacific oil pipeline
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/050PdAM3r90En/340x.jpg
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia's first oil pipeline to Asia must be completed without delay, underlining Russia's energy clout just hours before European Union leaders meet to discuss Georgia. Russian state-owned news agency RIA said Putin had signed a government order "on speeding the building of phases of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (pipeline) and not allowing delays," while on a visit to the Far East. He was speaking in Kozmino, a giant oil terminal being built on the Pacific coast to take the oil from the pipeline, which is being built by Transneft. Russia, the world's No. 2 oil producer, is fighting back at criticism from the United States and European states for recognizing Georgia's two breakaway regions as independent and sending troops deep into the tiny ex-Soviet nation. EU heads of state are set to meet on Monday at an emergency summit to discuss what to do about Russia, whose energy reserves give the Kremlin significant leverage over major EU economies. Russia's Asian pipeline, which will stretch from Eastern Siberia for thousands of miles to the Pacific coast, has been showcased by the Kremlin as a way to diversify Moscow's dependence on energy sales to the European Union. But the two-stage pipeline has been delayed by a year and building costs have soared as constructors grapple with the wilds of Eastern Siberia, where temperatures regularly fall to 50 degrees Celsius below zero and infrastructure is nonexistent.
PERSONAL CHARGE
Putin, who stepped down as president in May after eight years as Kremlin chief, is in personal charge of the pipeline project and while president he was instrumental in building closer ties with China. The latest launch date for the first part of the pipeline has been set for late 2009. The 1,680-mile pipeline is being built from Taishet in Eastern Siberia's Irkutsk region to Skovorodino on the Amur region near the Chinese border. It will cost more than $12 billion. About the distance between London and Istanbul, the Taishet-Skovorodino part of the pipeline will have a capacity of600,000 barrels per day. The oil terminal at Kozmino is being built where crude will be transported by rail from Skovorodino until a second section of pipeline can be built stretching to the coast. That second section is likely to cost at least another $12 billion, Russian officials have said. The project is a key part of Russia's aim to boost sagging oil production and diversify oil supplies to the booming economies of Asia, where China is hungry for oil to drive its economic transformation. State major Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and Russian oil firms TNK-BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Surgutneftegas (SNGS.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are seen as the main suppliers of the pipeline from the largely untapped fields of East Siberia.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLV15028720080831
Nabucco at risk after crisis in Georgia
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Baku_pipelines.svg/800px-Baku_pipelines.svg.png
The European Union's flagship Nabucco project seems to be up in the air due to the crisis currently pitting Moscow against Tbilisi, according to an analysis on an EU information website published yesterday. While most commentators stop short of saying that the main thrust of the Russian advance in Georgia was pipeline politics, all seem to agree that doubt has been cast on the reliability of Georgia as a major transit country to bring oil and gas supplies to Europe. In particular, the Nabucco gas pipeline is seen as a direct victim of the developments, according to the website, Euractiv.com. Nabucco is a 3,300-kilometer pipeline project that aims to bring gas to Europe from countries other than Russia by transferring natural gas from the Caspian basin to Austria via Turkey and the Balkan states. Turkey supports the Nabucco project as part of plans to seek alternative routes to diversify its energy resources so as not to depend on a single supplier.
Georgian officials have long complained that their country has become a victim of pipeline politics. President Mikheil Saakashvili reportedly claimed that the very fact that Georgia is already home to an oil line, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, or BTC, pipeline, designed with the precise aim of circumventing Russia, was a major reason for the Russian assault. One branch of the BTC, which runs from Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea through Georgia and then on to Turkey's Mediterranean coast for shipment, ends at the Georgian port of Supsa, which was blockaded by the Russian navy during the current crisis. “Russia is showing it controls this corridor,” said Giorgi Vashakmadze, an energy executive in Georgia, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “The Caspian region is wondering what this means for the future.” “After the military conflict with Russia, Georgia cannot be marked on oil and gas maps as a safe transit route, and no amount of support from NATO can change this alteration,” said Pavel K. Baev, research professor at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, as quoted in the Moscow Times.
Regarding the Nabucco project, Ed Chow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies was quoted by the Washington Post as saying Russia had raised serious doubts in the minds of Western lenders and investors that such a pipeline through Georgia would be safe from attack or beyond control of the Kremlin. He added that the pipeline “has always looked more like a diplomats' pipe dream than a viable economic project.” “Its promoters had not only failed to secure supply and transit agreements but also had yet to identify an oil company eager to champion the project and finance the pipeline,” stated Chow. The press agency Forbes also noted that while Russian troops are still in Georgia, the Russian state-controlled natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, has offered to buy all of Azerbaijan's gas exports. If Azerbaijan agrees, it could spell disaster for Western plans to decrease reliance on Russian supplies of natural gas. But, as with Russia's occupation of Georgia, the West will have little opportunity to stop the deal, according to the Forbes analysis.
Source: http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=113587
Greece ratifies South Stream deal with Russia
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/wsj_pipelines061508.gif
The Greek parliament voted on Tuesday to ratify an agreement with Russia to build the Greek section of the South Stream gas pipeline. The deal was approved by 264 MPs out of a total of 300. The South Stream project is expected to transport 10 billion cu m of Russian gas annually across the Black Sea to the Balkans and onto other European countries, with the first deliveries scheduled to start in 2013. Apart from Russia and Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Italy are involved in the project.
Source: http://en.rian.ru/world/20080902/116490941.html