(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Halia Pavliva and Ksenia Galouchko – May 19, 2014) President Vladimir Putin’s planned China visit this week is helping spark the longest rally in OAO Gazprom since 2006 as speculation mounts the Russian leader will return with a long-sought gas supply agreement. Gazprom, the world’s largest natural-gas producer, has climbed for nine days, rallying 16 percent […]
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(Oilprice.com – Daniel J. Graeber – May 14, 2014) Russian gas monopoly Gazprom says that despite the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, the risk to disruption of European energy supplies is “insignificant” because demand is expected to be low during the spring and summer months. In its quarterly report, the company said, “At the moment due to the worsening political situation […]
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MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow doubts Kiev will be able to pay for Russian gas supplies even if provided discounts because of the economic crisis in the country, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday. “We do not have any guarantees that even with a price of $100 [per thousand cubic meters] … for example, the Ukrainian side […]
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BRUSSELS. May 14 (Interfax) – Russia is ready to adapt long-term gas supply contracts and make them more flexible, said Pavel Zavalny, president of the Russian Gas Society. “Keeping relations with traditional consumers of Russian energy resources stable is a foreign energy policy priority. Russia is ready adapt the system of its own contracts to today’s tendencies for the market’s […]
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WASHINGTON, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – A complete European embargo on Russian gas imports would lead to an energy catastrophe in eastern European countries, an expert from San-Francisco based Nexant told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovakia, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina could be completely cut off by Western countries if they no longer serve as gas transits, Nexant’s Global […]
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BRUSSELS, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s state-run Naftogaz has not paid any part of its gas debt to Russia, despite Kiev’s announcement that it is ready to cover the debt at a reduced price, a Gazprom official said Wednesday. “They have not paid even at the old reduced price, the debt remains unpaid,” said Dmitry Khandoga, Head of Gazprom’s […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 12, 2014) The Russian side is ready to discuss lowering the price of gas for Ukraine if debts are repaid, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoliy Yanovskiy has told journalists. “We want contractual obligations to be met. We say that in order for a compromise to be discussed, debts have to be repaid. Pay the debt, then […]
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It is commonly assumed that the main economic challenge facing Ukraine is its dependence on energy supplies, especially natural gas, imported from Russia. But that is only half the story (opendemocracy.net – Margarita Balmaceda and Peter Rutland – May 8, 2014) Peter Rutland is professor of government at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA. Margarita Balmaceda is Professor of Diplomacy and […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, May 8, 2014) Ukraine does not acknowledge the $3.5 billion debt for Russian gas deliveries earlier announced by Russian energy giant Gazprom, acting Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Thursday. “We cannot accept the figure mentioned by Gazprom because Gazprom includes in this total some calculations that are based on an economically unsound price offered to […]
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(Interfax – May 8, 2014) Ukraine is prepared to complexly settle its debt for Russian gas within 10 days after Russian gas giant Gazprom agrees to return the price to $268 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas and sign the corresponding supplementary agreement, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said. “As soon as such a price is set and an additional […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Charles Recknagel – May 7, 2014) The European Union gets about one-third of its natural gas from Russia, and about half of that gas arrives in Europe via pipelines passing through Ukraine. Moscow is threatening to cut off natural-gas deliveries to Ukraine unless Kyiv promptly pays its outstanding bills. And that means the EU could potentially be caught in the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – May 7, 2014) Russia will be ready to consider a discount for natural gas to Ukraine on the second round of negotiations on the gas issue where EU Commission representatives should also be present, Russian Izvestia reported on May 7 citing its source in the government. The “second round” of negotiations […]
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MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – The European Union has hardened its stance on the construction of the South Stream natural gas pipeline amid the Ukrainian crisis, the EU commissioner for energy said in an interview with the Financial Times Tuesday. “These days, with Ukraine, we are more and more defensive related to Russian pipelines than one year ago … […]
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(Interfax – May 5, 2014) Russia filed a suit with the World Trade Organization on April 30 to begin judicial hearings on the application of the European Union’s Third Energy Package, a source close to the WTO told Interfax. The chief trade negotiator at the Economic Development Ministry, Maxim Medvedkov confirmed that the suit has been filed. He said that […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – rbth.ru – May 5, 2014) Ahead is a heavy schedule of negotiations aimed at resolving the problem by June, otherwise Europe will be left without the Russian gas it gets through Ukraine. The first round of trilateral gas negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union were limited to setting out initial, high negotiating positions. […]
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WARSAW. May 2 (Interfax) – Russia expects that Ukraine will spend part of the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) toward clearing its debts for Russian gas already supplied to it, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. Speaking in Warsaw on Friday, Novak pointed out that Ukraine had received the first tranche of an IMF loan in an amount […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrey Gubin, special to RBTH – April 23, 2014) Andrey Gubin is the head of research programs at the Asia-Pacific Center of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. International competition for control over Arctic resources is only a matter of time, says researcher Andrey Gubin. The Arctic has recently gained a new significance […]
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BEREZHANY, Ternopol region. April 27 (Interfax) – Ukraine will start receiving reverse gas as early as October 2014, and will stop importing Russian gas after 2015, said independent parliamentary deputy and presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko. “We have negotiated an agreement and we will start receiving reverse gas from Slovakia in October, giving up Russian gas,” he told residents of the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – April 24, 2014) The Russian Energy Ministry has offered EU Energy Commissioner GYnther Oettinger to convene negotiations with EU and Ukraine on “natural gas issues” in Moscow on April 28, Interfax reported on April 23 citing a ministry representative. “We are ready to discuss with partners the place and time of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Joe Carroll, Nicole Gaouette and Julianna Goldman – April 23, 2014) Ukraine’s best hope for keeping furnaces and factories running through next winter is to store as much natural gas as it can after a U.S. aid pledge fell far short of the nation’s needs. Energy supplies have given Russian leader Vladimir Putin powerful economic leverage […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Lossan, RBTH – April 15, 2014) After seeing its gas discounts canceled by the Russian gas giant, Kyiv is seeking alternatives to purchasing gas directly from Russia. Ukraine has proposed obtaining more than 50 percent of its gas by reversing gas flows from the EU, but Gazprom is blocking the move. After […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Chris Weafer, Macro Advisory – April 14, 2014) “Let me warn you, if you start chasing after views, you’ll be left without bread and without views” Nikolai Gogol Weekend headlines will add to market nervousness today. The headlines from east Ukraine over the weekend will unsettle markets at the start of trading today. The […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Tatyana Zykova, special to RBTH – April 10, 2014) Despite talk in Europe of reducing dependence on Russian fuel and promises of help from the U.S., for the foreseeable future Russia remains the only country that can supply the EU with an increasing supply of cheap gas. The European Commission in Brussels is again […]
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MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – US and EU energy companies would not tolerate the delays in payment by Ukraine that Russia has faced, an economist at the London Vanguard investment firm told the Voice of Russia radio station Friday. “Historically, since the end of the USSR, Ukraine has repeatedly failed to pay for its Russian gas. This is an […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daria Marchak and Jake Rudnitsky – April 10, 2014) Ukraine is reducing gas imports and halting payments for natural gas imports from Russia over price “aggression” before the world’s biggest exporter of the fuel cuts supplies, raising the risk of disrupted flows to Europe. Ukraine won’t buy gas to pump into underground storage for the heating […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. April 9 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Russia is ready to join four-sided talks on Ukraine, if they are meant to urge those who are in charge in Kyiv to take care of the country but not demand cheap gas from Russia. “This is our position: we want to see clear purposes for the […]
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(RIA Novosti – Beijing, April 0, 2014) Russia does not intend to switch energy exports from the western to the eastern direction because of an escalation of tension over Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Arkadiy Dvorkovich said on Wednesday [9 April] after a meeting with the co-chairs of the Russia-China energy cooperation committee . “At the moment we have no intention […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 9, 2014) As the EU presses on with sanctions against Russia for seizing Crimea, the $50 billion South Stream pipeline, meant to bring Russian gas through the Black Sea to Europe, may be frozen in favor of other projects. The European Union is close to freezing the progress of South Stream […]
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BRUSSELS, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s set price on gas for Ukraine is unfairly high and is creating a threat of transiting Russian gas to Europe, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Tuesday. “In this situation, the threat of cutting gas deliveries to Ukraine arises, as well as the threat of cutting transit gas to Europe because Ukraine’s ability […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 8, 2014) As the worst standoff since the Cold War emerges, energy and economic diplomacy are the tools the West applies to contain Russia, expecting them to be more effective than military confrontation. Business executives and energy industry analysts, however, were doubtful that these tools had any commercial value added to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 7, 2014) While Russia’s standoff with the West over Ukraine may have caused Italian energy group Eni to distance itself from the huge South Stream gas pipeline project linking Russia to Central Europe, partners from Germany, which is highly dependent on Russian gas, have stayed faithful. On Friday, German engineering conglomerate […]
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MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – American gas cannot become an alternative to the Russian fuel in Ukraine for the lack of “vacant export objects” in the foreseeable future, said Sergey Kupriyanov an official spokesperson for Gazprom in his interview with TV-channel Rossiya 24 Saturday. He stressed that the claims of Ukranian authorities about possibly importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) […]
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(Interfax – March 5, 2014) Ukraine must pay its debt for gas supplied by Russia based on the contracts signed in 2009, Aleksey Miller, the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, has said, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on 5 April. Meanwhile, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov has said Ukraine has no grounds to take Russia to international […]
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MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) – It would be difficult for Europe to give up Russian energy resources, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview with TV channel Rossiya 24. He recalled that statements have been made about reducing the dependence on Russia in future. “And such work is being done in the European Union, in the United States. There […]
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(Interfax – April 3, 2014) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has announced the cancellation of the zero customs export duty on gas for Ukraine. The budget deficit of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy will increase by UAH8.2 billion, or around $750 million at the current exchange rate, to UAH56.254 billion due to Russia resuming its duty on […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Halia Pavliva and Ksenia Galouchko – April 3, 2014) Back in April 2007, in the midst of the greatest commodities rally on record, OAO Gazprom’s (OGZD) deputy chief executive officer, Alexander Medvedev, was talking big. Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly aspired to be the world’s largest company, he said while offering up a prediction: its market value […]
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(Interfax – Minsk, March 26, 2014) OAO [open joint-stock company] Gazprom is not yet ready to say whether the discount on gas for Ukraine that was introduced at the beginning of the year would remain in effect in the second quarter of 2014. “Concerning the price of gas for Ukraine, it will be determined starting from the second quarter of […]
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(Kremlin.ru – March 10, 2007) Munich VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you very much dear Madam Federal Chancellor, Mr Teltschik, ladies and gentlemen! I am truly grateful to be invited to such a representative conference that has assembled politicians, military officials, entrepreneurs and experts from more than 40 nations. This conference’s structure allows me to avoid excessive politeness and the need to […]
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KYIV. March 9 (Interfax) – The price of Russian gas exported to Ukraine could stand at $368.5 per 1,000 cubic meters in the second quarter of 2014, said Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan. “We expect Russia to export gas to us at $368.5 per 1,000 cubic meters,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Sunday. Ukraine continues repaying […]
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GORKI, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday that it will annul its discount on natural gas sales to Ukraine from April, a move that will further stretch Kiev’s teetering finances. Alexei Miller, who made the announcement while meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev outside Moscow, motivated the decision by pointing out […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 19, 2014) State-owned gas giant Gazprom captured its largest-ever share of the European and Turkish gas market last year, supplying 30 percent of the continent’s needs, as compared to 26 percent in 2012. The Russian export monopoly sent 162.7 billion cubic meters of gas westward in 2013, and beat the record market share of […]
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[Moscow Times – Todd Wood – February 13, 2014 – themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/dont-worry-about-us-fracturing/494439.html] Todd Wood, in a Moscow Times op-ed, writes that while the United States has used fracking to seize the lead in global petroleum exports, Russia has more reserves, and could expand oil field services. Unfortunately for Russia, the U.S. has taken the lead in hydraulic fracturing technology and is […]
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MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will increase oil production this year by 0.3 percent to 525 million tons and boost its natural gas output by 4.8 percent to 700 billion cubic meters, the country’s deputy energy minister said Wednesday. “We could increase gas production even more, but there are issues with storage, transportation and consumption,” said Kirill Molodtsov. […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Charles Recknagel – February 11, 2014) The Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom has long had its way in Europe, dominating the continent’s energy market and, according to critics, flaunting its rules with impunity. But that all might be about to change. A long-standing showdown between Gazprom and the European Union over alleged price fixing and monopoly practices […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – February 5, 2014) Gazprom is spending money on useless pipelines that makes the $51 billion spent on the Sochi Olympics look modest, an opposition party investigation said. The state-owned gas giant is lavishing billions of dollars on transportation infrastructure, including the South Stream pipeline to Europe, that will never be used even […]
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MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – Crisis-hit Ukraine currently owes Russia about $3.3 billion in unpaid natural gas bills, Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom said Monday in an apparent reminder that the long-running conflict over the fuel has not been solved by a recent price cut agreement. Ukraine is unlikely to pay on time for gas imported in January, Vedomosti […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – February 3, 2014) State-controlled oil giant Rosneft had a very good year. That is what company chief executive Igor Sechin told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday at a meeting to review Russia’s largest oil producer, whose capitalization grew by 18 percent to $73 billion at the end of 2013. Sechin’s optimism […]
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(Interfax – February 3, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed concern over statements by European Union representatives that inter-governmental agreements between Russia and South Stream project participants should be brought in line with the requirements of the Third Energy Package. “We are bewildered and concerned by Brussels’ statements about the need to review the intergovernmental agreements between Russia […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) – Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) is not just undervalued, it is totally undervalued, the Russian gas giant’s deputy CEO, Alexander Medvedev, said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel. “Perhaps now is the very best time to buy back shares,” which could later be sold on the market, Medvedev said. This is Gazprom’s first official […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – January 17, 2014) As a major exporter of fossil fuels, Russia may seem an unlikely candidate for global environmental champion, but macro-economic experts believe the country can play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions and the impact of climate change. This uncommon view of the country’s potential to support ecological improvement […]
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