Austria And Russia Sign South Stream Pipeline Agreement
Austria has signed up to build part of Russia's South Stream gas pipeline, while keeping a hand in the competing European pipeline Nabucco. READ MORE
Ukraine's Election Clouds EU's Energy Future
There is little doubt that as president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych will decisively shift the country's geopolitical posture, with Kiev once again moving closer to Moscow after its pro-Western and pro-EU turn of 2005. The potential consequences on the EU's energy future are serious, as 80 percent of Russian natural gas exports to Europe transit through Ukrainian territory. The country has been in repeated price disputes with the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, Gazprom, resulting in interruptions of deliveries to the Ukrainian market in January 2006 and 2009, with supplies to Europe affected both times. READ MORE
Bulgarian Government Skeptical on South Stream Project
Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller held talks in Sofia on February 16 “to activate work on the South Stream project in Bulgaria”. Bulgaria is the country most pivotal to South Stream. The pipeline is planned to run from Russia across the Black Sea to Bulgaria, and from that country to bifurcate toward central and southern Europe. READ MORE
Berlin–Rome–Ankara
Following the results of the meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin suggested to deepen the cooperation within energy sphere by assets exchanging. First of all the case is about the access to the resources of Black and Caspian Sea and the gas transporting system of Turkey. Also Ankara promises to arrange all approvals for the South Stream piping till November. Gazprom says that now Turkey stands in one list with its other strategic partners – Germany and Italy. READ MORE
For the West, 'Game Over' in Central Asia
Last month, the West officially lost the new "Great Game." The 20-year competition for natural resources and influence in Central Asia between the United States (supported by the European Union), Russia and China has, for now, come to an end, with the outcome in favor of the latter two. Western defeat was already becoming clear with the slow progress of the Nabucco pipeline and the strategic reorientation of some Central Asian republics toward Russia and China. Two recent events, however, confirmed it. READ MORE
Medvedev-Erdogan talks to focus on gas, oil, nuclear projects
Gas pipelines and a project to build the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, will dominate talks between the Russian president and the visiting Turkish premier on Wednesday, the Kremlin said. READ MORE
Bulgaria: US, Russia Relations Revisited Via Pipeline Politics
Having visited Washington and New York a couple of times in the last months Rumiana Jeleva, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister and now Europe’s potential European Commission Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, spoke to New Europe about the shifting geopolitics of gas and the South East Europe region. READ MORE
Moscow Backtracks From Strategy to Bypass Ukraine’s Gas Transit System
Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko declared on November 16 that the Nord Stream pipeline on the Baltic seabed would not be used for diverting gas volumes away from Ukraine’s transit pipelines to Europe. In effect, this statement acknowledges that the Nord Stream pipeline, from Russia directly to Germany, is not a Ukraine-bypass project. READ MORE
Ukrainian Signs In Turkish March: New Reality Of Energy Policy
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said one of those sayings, which perfectly characterizes current role of Turkey within international political and economic arena: "Turkey is the extreme Eastern point of West and the extreme Western point of East". READ MORE
Azerbaijan Could Scuttle Nabucco Over Turkey-Armenia Deal
Azerbaijan has apparently decided to play its energy card. As much of the world applauded Turkey's historic rapprochement with Armenia last week, Azerbaijan felt left out in the cold and abandoned by its closest ally. READ MORE
