(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – April 25, 2013) ExxonMobil was a highlight of an investment conference in Moscow on Wednesday, attended by U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, where speakers discussed the prospects of U.S. business in Russia. Organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, the event sought to emphasize trade and investment despite political tensions between the countries. McFaul recalled how President Vladimir Putin and President
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 16, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-moscow-lacks-funds-to.html) Despite Vladimir Putin’s promises to ensure that Russia kept its monopoly in the Arctic as the melting of the ice cap made that region more important, Moscow has cut back plans to build nine new icebreakers, a key to that control, because the finance ministry says there is not enough money to build them. That decision, reported
MOSCOW. March 26 (Interfax) – Russian presidential envoy for international cooperation in the Arctic and Federation Council member Artur Chilingarov has objected to making the Northern Sea Route an international route, and Federation Council member Yury Neyolov has proposed expanding Russia’s Arctic area by adding a number of regions to it. “Options for providing different kinds of assistance to Russia in developing the Arctic are being actively discussed nowadays, and
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Rakteem Katakey & Will Kennedy – March 25, 2013) Russia’s decision to give China a share of prized Arctic exploration licenses as part of a “breakthrough” deal signals how the world’s largest oil and gas producer and the biggest energy consumer are redrawing the global energy map. Under agreements signed during President Xi Jinping’s first state trip abroad, China may double oil imports from state-run OAO
(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald Jensen – March 19, 2013) Despite rumors of his waning influence, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin remains one of the most powerful members of Russia’s ruling establishment. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, discusses Sechin’s latest “string of triumphs.” Igor Sechin, chief executive of the Rosneft Oil Company, long-time
MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) Temperatures in the Arctic will warm up twice as fast as in the rest of the world this century, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry has warned. “In the 21st century, the temperature in the Arctic the average [speed] of global warming will rise 2-2.5 times faster,” the ministry’s center responsible for monitoring meteorological trends, Antistikhiya, said in its annual report. The ministry’s center forecasts
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – March 19, 2013) The big dollop of egg on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s face since it emerged a strip of water in the Barents Sea ceded by the then-president to Norway contains more than $30bn worth of oil and gas spells trouble for the already weakened premier. Russia and Norway had been negotiating for more than 40 years over just where to draw
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) – Russia would form a reserve of oil and gas fields in its Arctic zone under a proposal contained in the Strategy for Development of Russia’s Arctic Zone and Ensuring National Security to 2020 published on the government website on Wednesday. The fund would help guarantee the nation’s energy security and ensure the steady development of the fuel and energy complex over the long term. It
NOVO-OGARYEVO. Feb 14 (Interfax) – The day former Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) chief Rem Vyakhirev was laid to rest also proved to be grave in terms of the company’s strategic outlook. Russian rivals and officials have been talking seriously about ending the company’s export monopoly, approaching this delicate issue by scrapping the monopoly on LNG exports from offshore fields. Russian producers have already voiced their desire to control their own gas
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) – Russia will soon present the UN with the results of its research on the extent of the continental shelf in the central Sea of Okhotsk, and later in the Arctic Ocean more than 200 miles from the shore, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said at a Thursday briefing. “Russia has long been conducting systematic work on the proper clearance of its
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – January 24, 2013) The federal government will submit its final Arctic territorial claims with the United Nations by the end of the year, the country’s leading Arctic scientist said. Artur Chilingarov, the veteran explorer who led the expedition to plant a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole in 2007, told Rossia 24 television that Russia’s claim to a portion
MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) Russia has no plans to allow foreign companies to work independently on the country’s continental shelf but will let them develop offshore deposits there in partnership with Russian state firms, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Tuesday. “As for the admission of foreign companies, no changes are planned, which means foreign companies can be involved as technological partners, including on the risk-sharing terms,
NOVY URENGOI, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday called for more intensive exploration of Russia’s oil- and gas-rich continental shelf, stressing that all shelf development projects should be long-term. “The [current] pace of geological surveys on the continental shelf is insufficient,” he said. Medvedev listed a number of reasons for the slow progress, including the natural, climatic and geological specifics of the shelf, which spans
MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – The standoff between state and private oil companies over access to Russia’s continental shelf over the past year recalled the cold war of the early 1980s. It was also a combination of clashing ideologies and ambitions, coalitions of allies, war on the periphery, scare tactics, a search for compromises and absurdity. As in the cold war of the 20th century, no one took a decisive
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – December 20, 2012) 2012 saw the climate-change-fueled dash for the Arctic’s riches dominate the environmental agenda. The debate over the high north, the annual nightmare of forest fires and continuing battles between activists and developers over roads, mines and the Sochi Olympics are only likely to intensify next year. Greenpeace activists stormed Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea in the
MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – The Ob River liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, chartered by the Gazprom Group (RTS: GAZP), successfully completed the world’s first LNG shipment via the Northern Sea Route on Wednesday, the Russian gas giant reported. The tanker, which departed from Norway’s Hammerfest Port on November 7, has arrived at the regasification terminal at Tobata Port in Japan and delivered a batch of Gazprom Group LNG to
(RIA Novosti- Moscow, 4 December) By the middle of the 21st century, Russia may lose its sovereignty unless it today clearly identifies its national interests in the Arctic region, Russian Federation Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin said on Tuesday (4 December). “It is extremely important that we place the markers, it is extremely important that we mark the perimeter of our national interests in that region. If we do not
(Voice of America – James Brooke – Nov. 28, 2012) MOSCOW Americans may have seen the downside of climate change when Hurricane Sandy bashed into New Jersey and New York City in October. Some scientists say melting Arctic ice helped to create the largest Atlantic hurricane on record. Russians and Chinese, however, see an upside to ice melting in the Arctic. On Wednesday, Russia’s Arctic summer shipping season closed,
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Alex Morales – November 27, 2012) Thawing permafrost threatens to intensify global warming, sending the planet beyond the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of increases that envoys at United Nations climate talks have set as a maximum. Frozen soils that cover a quarter of the land area in the northern hemisphere contain 1,700 gigatons (1,700 billion tons) of carbon, twice the amount currently in
[Scientists say new signs of global warming in Russian Arctic - AFP - November 22, 2012 - click here for full article] AFP covers warming in the Russian Arctic: The Russian Arctic is losing ice cover and being inhabited by species from the south in the latest sign of climate change, according to a group of Russian scientists. * * * As the biggest Arctic nation, Russia has recently stepped
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alexey Eremenko – October 29, 2012) It is cheaper to send a rocket into space than to drill a single oil well in the Arctic Sea. One Proton rocket launch costs from $80 million to $100 million, while offshore oil wells in the Arctic come in at $100 million to $150 million apiece and each oil field needs tens of them, says Valery Nesterov,
ST. PETERSBURG, October 17 (RIA Novosti)-The record reduction in Arctic pack-ice this year has created favorable conditions for year-long navigation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in 2013, offering major savings to shipping operators, Russia’s Arctic Institute said on Wednesday. The ice coverage in the Arctic reached its record minimum of 3.41 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles) in September, or almost half of the 1979 to 2000 average.
Roland Oliphant – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com - September 24, 2012 Gazprom Neft has delayed the start of oil operations at its offshore Prirazlomnoye oil field due to safety concerns, it was reported Friday. The field is now expected to start producing oil in September or October of next year, a source at the company said, Reuters reported. Earlier, the company said production would start this year. “Work won’t start
Canadian Government Doe Not See A Military Threat in the Arctic, Says DND (Department of National Defence) – David Pugliese – Ottawa Citizen (Canada) – August 16, 2012 click here to read original article David Pugliese writes in the Ottawa Citizen about Canadian military planning and its response to Russia’s heightened focus on the Arctic, playing down the notion that Russia is viewed as a threat by the Canadians. Nevertheless,
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