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South Stream

The EU and Kazakhstan Aim for Enhanced Partnership

By Roman Muzalevsky

In late October Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, visited Brussels where he met with Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the European Council president, Herman Von Rompuy, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The parties discussed energy and economic relations, Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and regional security challenges in the post-Soviet space. Astana and Brussels also signed a series of documents to boost economic relations. READ MORE

Russia’s Message to Turkmenistan: Export Your Gas Anywhere Except Europe

By Vladimir Socor

On October 28, Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly contradicting the Russian government’s views on the bilateral gas trade and on Turkmen gas export policy in general. The statement follows six days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a governmental delegation held talks with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov in Ashgabat. READ MORE

Belgian Firm Planning Surprise Twist In Nabucco Story

By Andrew Rettman

A little-known Belgian businessman says his company is poised to clinch a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) deal with Turkmenistan in November in a potential setback for the EU's Nabucco and Russia's South Stream pipeline projects. READ MORE

Putin Looks Sour Loser On Nabucco

By Vladimir Socor

Russia seems to have lost its lobbying battle in Europe for its South Stream pipeline carrying gas and against rival Nabucco, which is planned to run from Azerbaijan via Turkey to the European markets. At present, Moscow seeks as a last resort to negate the availability of gas supplies to the Nabucco project in the Caspian basin. READ MORE

Project with Unclear Fate

By Alexey Makarkin

The question on the fate of the “South Stream” pipeline remains one of the key ones for Russian policy within the gas sphere. The alternative European “Nabucco” project remains its competitor; the issue, which pipeline will be constructed, can be solved already by the end of this year (the beginning of the accomplishment of one project can make another one unclaimed). At the moment the organizers of the both projects hold tensed negotiations with the Parties involved. In case of the “South Stream” we are talking about transit states, among which Bulgaria is the one which is potentially able to play the kind of role not only for Russia-Italian project, but also for the “Nabucco”. READ MORE

Ukraine May Give Russia Joint Control of Pipe to Cut Gas Prices

By Daryna Krasnolutska and Kateryna Choursina

Ukraine is willing to give Russia joint control of a pipeline to southeastern Europe in exchange for access to natural gas supplies, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said as the countries negotiate a gas venture. READ MORE

Who Will Stop Russian Energy March to Europe?

By Valentinas Mitė, a reporter for the RFE/RL

Dependence of the states of Eastern and Middle Europe from Russian gas and oil is practically absolute. This calls a concern that energy dependence can transform into a political one. READ MORE

Pipeline Interdependence

By Vasil Shparluk

Russia has been making enormous efforts recently aiming to reduce its dependence on energy transit across Belarus and Ukraine. It is assumed that the aim will be achieved after commissioning of the gas mains known as the "Nord Stream" and the "South Stream", which will keep Europe, like in "tentacles", in energy dependence from Russia. READ MORE

The EU and natural gas: The new security agenda

By George Joffe, reserarch fellow at the Centre for International Studies at the University of Cambridge

Energy supply should dominate the EU's overall security objectives for the immediate future, given its dependence on Russia. READ MORE

Mikhail Krutikhin: Streams in Dreams

It doesn’t look as a coincidence. On the eve of Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Ankara a group of Turkish experts left for Baku to prepare a comprehensive agreement on supplying Azerbaijani gas to the planned Nabucco pipeline. READ MORE