[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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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – David Miller, special to RBTH – February 7, 2014) Russia’s biggest crude producer agrees to buy Morgan Stanley’s oil merchanting assets as it ramps up cooperation on new fields with U.S. major ExxonMobil. Russia’s largest oil firm, Rosneft, purchased Morgan Stanley’s oil trading and transportation business in a move that gives the firm […]
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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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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – February 3, 2014) Russia spent the end of last year battling the EU for control over Ukraine. But should the Kremlin have been paying more attention to what was going on its southern border instead? In the last three months, the Chinese have swept through Central and Eastern Europe […]
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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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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Irina Reznik, Stephen Bierman and Henry Meyer – January 30, 2014) The record stretched across the history of the party and its socialist predecessor — from the first meeting in March 1898 to the last one in July 1990, a year and a half before the Soviet Union collapsed, Bloomberg Markets will report in its March […]
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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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BRUSSELS. Jan 14 (Interfax) – It is necessary to carry out eliminations and exceptions in the European Union law for the South Stream transborder pipeline, Russia’s envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said. Moscow expects EU Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger to elaborate on the way in which Brussels will hold talks on the South Stream on behalf of the […]
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MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) A subsidiary of the Russian oil giant LUKoil has been slapped with a fine of 614 million rubles ($18.5 million), which Greenpeace said appeared to be the biggest such fine in Russia’s history. LUKoil-Komi was fined for nine oil spills from 2011 in Russia’s northern republic of Komi, according to documents available on the […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO, January 9 (RIA Novosti) Russia will nearly triple its production of natural uranium in the next two years, the head of the country’s state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom said Thursday. Sergei Kiriyenko said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia had in recent years been producing some 3,000-3,200 metric tons of uranium annually. “In 2015, we will […]
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KIEV, January 9 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine has ceased buying gas from Europe and will instead purchase the fuel solely from Russia, as it offers the lowest prices, Ukraine’s energy minister said Thursday. Russian gas is “the most profitable [supply option] for today,” said Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavitsky. Kiev has been buying gas from Poland and […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax) – Russia’s oil and gas condensate output grew 1.0% year-on-year to 523.276 million tonnes (10.508 million barrels a day) in 2013, the Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex (CDU TEK) said. Russia produced 44.964 million tonnes of oil in December, with the average daily produce of 10.632 million barrels. In 2013 Rosneft (MOEX: […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Vladimir Kuznetsov – January 8, 2014) The ruble strengthened after the resumption of trading in Moscow as oil gained and investors bet next month’s Winter Olympics will support Russia’s currency. The ruble appreciated 0.4 percent to 38.4873 against Bank Rossii’s target basket of dollars and euros by 2:03 p.m. in Moscow. The yield on Russian government […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stephen Bierman – January 2, 2014) As Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin argue over human rights in Russia and the fate of fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the countries’ biggest oil companies are preparing to drill for giant discoveries together in the Arctic Ocean. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:US) and OAO Rosneft (ROSN) are set to […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Russia is looking to study oil and gas prospects as it prepares to extend its Arctic shelf borders. Subsurface resources agency Rosnedra has already announced – on the state procurement portal – a tender for the selection of an outfit to evaluate the prospects of oil and gas fields on Russia’s continental shelf beyond the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The Russian-American program to retrieve spent nuclear fuel of Russian production from other countries has been prolonged until 2024. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom told Interfax that Russia and the United States exchanged their notes on this agreement. Rosatom was previously planning to round off the program in 2016. The Russian-American program is being carried […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The only good Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) production news this year was on the export front, which is the profit margin generator. Against a backdrop of weakening competitors, Russian gas deliveries increased. The record holder Gazprom Export, instead of reaping rewards, got tax claims and equivalent to its annual revenue and exile to St. Petersburg. BETTER […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) – Growing production of shale oil and gas poses a significant risk to Russia’s economic security, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council has claimed. “Having increased its production of shale gas, the United States has reduced its imports of liquefied natural gas. So its exporters have switched over to Europe. In addition, in 2012 the United […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) – Russia’s subsurface resource base allows the country to maintain oil production of 500 million tonnes a year for the next ten, given the current conditions, Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi said during a meeting devoted to the ‘effectiveness of studying and developing raw hydrocarbons on Russia’s continental shelf.’ However, the minister said, if efforts are […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – December 18, 2013) Construction of a major pipeline kicked off Tuesday in an effort that will likely bring more oil from Siberia to China. Governor Lev Kuznetsov made a show at the starting ceremony in his Krasnoyarsk region, braving the rubber-bullet injury he suffered during a robbery of his southern French villa […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Russia’s Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) and Naftogaz Ukraine, in the presence of the two countries’ presidents on Tuesday, signed addenda to January 19, 2009 contracts on the purchase-sale, delivery and transshipment of natural gas for 2009-2019. Discount President Vladimir Putin said after the signing that the documents would enable Gazprom to supply gas to Ukraine at […]
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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s deal to provide Ukraine with cheaper gas may mean billions of dollars in lost profits, an investment analyst told a business newspaper in remarks published Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would slash the price of its gas to Ukraine by one-third on Tuesday, down to $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters from […]
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(Moscow News – moscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – December 11, 2013) With thousands still protesting in Kiev’s streets after Ukraine suspended plans to sign a trade association agreement with the European Union, beleaguered Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is still mulling whom to side with for closer economic cooperation – Russia or Europe. Here are six things Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – December 12, 2013) Russia intends to deploy a military force on its northern coast to engage in the fight for control over promising oil and gas reserves in the Arctic Ocean. Russia will send a military force to be set up in the Artic next year in order to […]
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(Oilprice.com – Daniel J. Graeber – December 7, 2013) President of Russian energy company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, said he was eager to unlock the shale oil potential in the Samara region of western Russia. With forecasts warning the U.S. shale phenomenon won’t last, Russia could be moving its pawns into play. Sechin met Friday with Helge Lund, chief executive officer […]
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MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine owes Russia some $2 billion for gas supplies and no plan is in place to settle the debt, the head of Russia’s Gazprom said Wednesday. Alexei Miller, chief executive of state-owned Gazprom, said it was in discussions with Ukraine’s national energy company Naftogaz to find a solution. “We are seeking variants to resolve […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Irina Reznik & Henry Meyer – December 2, 2013) Russia will offer cheaper natural gas to Ukraine if the government in Kiev opts to join a Moscow-led economic bloc after halting free-trade talks with the European Union, according to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Ukraine’s economic difficulties will be best resolved if it chooses integration […]
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MOSCOW, December 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a landmark law breaking state-owned Gazprom’s monopoly on gas exports, according to a document published on a government site Monday. Gazprom will keep its export monopoly on gas carried through pipelines, but the new law will allow Russian producers to export liquefied natural gas, the super-cooled fuel increasingly […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) – Russia’s modest economic growth despite high oil prices means that the economy is barely growing at all, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said. “Given such high prices for energy resources, it must be acknowledged that we are not in fact growing,” Shuvalov said at a business conference on Wednesday. That circumstance makes the development […]
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MOSCOW, December 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian naval forces are set to make the Arctic a priority region, boosting combat training and scouting lesser-known areas of the icy territory in 2014, a navy spokesman said Monday. The Northern Fleet will conduct sailing and diving expeditions in the Arctic and develop a series of ice-class patrol ships to protect the country’s […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The amount of energy Russia consumes per unit of GDP has declined since 2000, but not due to the introduction of new technologies or the efforts of local authorities and companies, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. “In the past 13 years the trend in energy use per unit of GDP has been favorable, but not […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 25, 2013) Russian homes are using up to two times more energy than those in climatically similar regions of Europe and the United States, and the national housing authority wants to tackle the problem by working with the Energy Ministry to build energy-efficient housing. Many residential buildings in Russia have been constructed according to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Evgenia Pismennaya – November 24, 2013) Vladimir Putin wasn’t having a great day. The Russian president had spent the August morning in a helicopter over Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border, surveying flood damage that had left tens of thousands of people homeless. Then he met with senior advisers who were on the trip, for a briefing […]
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KIEV, November 24 (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Sunday his country had secured Moscow’s pledge to review a gas contract Kiev believes to be unfavorable. “We have been persistently trying to persuade the Russian Federation to review the contract,” Azarov told Ukrainian TV channel ICTV. “Now, generally speaking, there is such a pledge, and we hope […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The actions of the Greenpeace environmentalists who tried to climb an oil platform in the Arctic posed a threat to the lives of the people who are working there, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “When they climb the platform and create an emergency situation, there could be not just one mistake of an operator but […]
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MOSCOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti) A spokesman for Russia’s state nuclear corporation said Friday that a facility for the disposal of Soviet-era radioactive waste is to be built in the country’s Far East. Officials said they made the announcement to quell media speculation that a site was being set aside for the dumping of nuclear waste from abroad. Those […]
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MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) The Greenpeace activists detained in Russia over a protest at an Arctic oil rig should be granted clemency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday as 10 of them were released and many others granted bail. When asked to comment on their case at a meeting with Russian writers, publishers, critics and booksellers, Putin said […]
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(Oilprice.com – Charles Kennedy – November 19, 2013) More than 400 shale oil and gas wells will be drilled outside of the US in 2014, most of them in China and Russia, while Europe largely sits on the sidelines of the so-called revolution, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The geological conditionsnot to mention the public supportfor a […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – If the Sextet adheres to the stance of recognizing Iran’s right to enrich uranium for peaceful, energy purposes during the talks with Tehran, the parties might have a chance to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “For many years Russia put forward the following approach: we all recognize Iran’s right […]
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MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia and Ukraine have reached a compromise deal allowing Kiev to alter its payment schedule for Russian natural gas imports, Ukrainian Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky said Monday. The new agreement will allow Kiev to pay on time for energy deliveries, honoring its commitments to both Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom and European consumers, Stavytsky […]
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MOSCOW, November 15 (RIA Novosti) Ukrainian national fuel company Naftogaz has resumed natural gas supplies from Russia, the chief executive of Russian energy giant Gazprom said Friday. “Naftogaz has stopped pumping gas out of its underground storage facilities and resumed purchases of Russian gas in accordance with the current contract,” Alexei Miller told reporters. Ukraine had halted Russian gas […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – November 13, 2013) Ukraine is finally trying to break its addiction to Russian gas and Cadogan Petroleum is one of those companies well placed to make that happen. A medium-sized independent oil and gas producer, Cadogan was responsible in 2011 for bringing Italian energy giant Eni into Ukraine to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andrew McChesney – November 13, 2013) The government is considering delaying the privatization of oil giant Rosneft until 2016 or later as it seeks to maximize the price it can secure. Rosneft is scheduled to be privatized in 2015, and a postponement could put a dent in projected government spending. “We will have to discuss […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – The Russian president’s Human Rights Council has asked Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin to consider the possible release of the Arctic Sunrise crewmembers who were detained for staging a protest off Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea from custody. “The Russian president’s Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights is […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – November 5, 2013) The visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev to China once again highlighted the strategic importance that Moscow attaches to Asia. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, notes that the prospects for […]
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