Turkmenistan: Ashgabat Energy-Reserve Controversy Continues To Flare
Are Turkmenistan’s energy reserve figures fudged or not? Just over a week after allegations first surfaced that the Turkmen government’s claims are grossly hyped, the controversy over Ashgabat’s export capacity is still flaring. Representatives of the firm that conducted the original audit are vigorously defending their reputation for thoroughness. Meanwhile, a whistleblower says he remains confident in the accuracy of his sources’ information. READ MORE
EU: Energy Security Is In The Pipeline
After years of dithering, and despite Moscow's threats, agreement has been finalised for a project to bring non-Russian gas to Europe. READ MORE
Caspian Passions
The new round of Russian Government attention to the issue of the Caspian Sea legal status determination, specified by President Dmitry Medvedev during the recent meeting in Astrakhan, called a disruptive reaction among pre-Caspian states. READ MORE
Georgia quits ex-Soviet “commonwealth”
One year after its short war with Russia, Georgia on Tuesday (18 August) became the first country to withdraw from the grouping of former Soviet republics, in a sign of rebellion met with disdain from Moscow. READ MORE
Zeyno Baran: the USA Wants NABUCCO to Go Round Russia
The USA have no economic interests in the Nabucco gas pipeline project, as well as there was no economic interest in the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. This was stated by Zeyno Baran, the Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute. According to Zeyno Baran, who is also a wife of the US State Secretary Deputy Assistant Matthew Bryza, Washington has a pure political interest in these projects. “We should assure for the countries of Caucasus and Central Asia, through the territories of which Nabucco pipeline will be laid, have no fear to become dependent of Russia”, - she noted. READ MORE
Azerbaijan: No Jitters Over Turkmenistan’s Caspian Sea Threat
Turkmenistan’s pledge to take Azerbaijan to court over the two countries’ rival claims to Caspian Sea oil fields has sparked more confusion than anger in Baku. Some Azerbaijani experts even believe that an international arbitration hearing could prove the best way to resolve a long-standing energy dispute. READ MORE
Geopolitics Of Nabucco. View Of Kiev
Persistent long-term struggle of “Gazprom” against potential construction of Nabucco pipeline has failed. In Ankara the Heads of Turkish, Austrian, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian Governments signed an intergovernmental agreement on the project of the gas pipeline that will deliver gas from Caspian region to Europe round Russia. Meanwhile Germany also engaged with this project didn’t put its sign under the agreement as it is not a transiting state. READ MORE
US Strategy Of Total Energy Control Over The European Union And Eurasia
One of his first foreign visits as new President took Barack Obama to Ankara for a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and other leading Turkish officials. Obama engaged in classical “horse trading” wheeling and dealing. “I give you support for Turkey’s EU membership; you open the diplomatic door to Armenia,” appears to have been the core of the deal. What other inducements the US President gave in the case of Turkish influence within NATO and such is secondary. Obama’s goal was to break a political deadlock in Turkey to construction of a major gas pipeline to Germany and other EU countries in direct opposition to Russian Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline. READ MORE
Nabucco And Hopes Of Georgia
The start of “Nabucco” project accomplishment was officially announced. An alternative pipeline that will supply gas to Europe round Russia will be the first step to reduction of energy and political influence of Moscow in Europe. Defeat of Russia and Georgian approach to Europe – these are the results of “Nabucco” Summit for Georgia. READ MORE
