The EU and Kazakhstan Aim for Enhanced Partnership
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
