MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine is far from paying off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom despite several payments, a company spokesman said Tuesday. “We have received several small installments for gas supplies in August, but it’s too early to speak about complete payment of the debt,” spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 4, 2013) Facing down Russian bullying on one side and an economic collapse that could only be months away, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has reportedly caved into long-standing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on November 4 by saying his government would hike domestic gas tariffs. Ukraine’s hard currency reserves have been […]
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KYIV. Nov 2 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian government and the national oil and gas provider Naftogaz have basically fulfilled President Viktor Yanukovych’s instruction to significantly reduce the amount of natural gas purchases under a contract that Ukraine concluded with Russia during Yulia Tymoshenko’s premiership in 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Boiko said. “Naftogaz and the government have basically fulfilled the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Maria Karnaukh, special to RBTH – November 1, 2013) Many countries would like to tap into the Arctic’s vast hydrocarbon resources, but Russia is the only nation so far to have risked hefty investments in the region. Experts wonder whether Moscow will be successful in selling Arctic oil at $200 or more per […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – November 1, 2013) In early October, Rosneft head Igor Sechin made a brief, enigmatic comment suggesting that there was more than meets the eye behind a Greenpeace protest Sept. 18 against a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic, an action that resulted in the arrest of 30 people and a black eye […]
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(Interfax – Gorki, October 29, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said that the authorities should ensure 100-per-cent collection of payments for gas, stressing that the time of “gas communism” was over. “We must ensure conditions for 100-per-cent collection of gas payments. I think everyone should realize that there will be no such all-encompassing forgiveness of debt, no ‘gas […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – October 30, 2013) In an intensifying fight between Russia and Ukraine, the gloves came off on October 29 when Gazprom hit Ukraine with just short of a $1bn gas bill in retribution for Kyiv’s decision to turn its back on the Russian-led Customs Union and throw in its lot with the EU with the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 29, 2013) State pollster VTsIOM released survey results Monday regarding last month’s Greenpeace protest in the Arctic that indicate more than a third of Russians believe the protest was a foreign plot and more than two-thirds disagree with the group’s message of needing to protect the environment from oil drilling. Armed […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – October 25, 2013) Gazprom has started to operate the first offshore field that it has developed on its own, in a test of its power to perform the challenging task without foreign partners. Sitting off the Pacific island of Sakhalin, the Kirinskoye field will feed natural gas to Asia, as demand from […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 24, 2013) Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform, the advance guard of the coming expansion of Russia’s state energy corporations into the Arctic, is a cobbled together bric-a-brac of second-hand parts, some of which date to 1984, environmentalists said. The very presence of the Prirazlomnaya rig in the icy Pechora Sea is the result […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 22 (Interfax) – The overall forecast for construction of nuclear power plants in the world in the period to 2030 has returned to the “pre-Fukushima” level, the head of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko said Tuesday at the sixth regional public forum on the nuclear industry and public safety. “The geography has changed, understandably this forecast […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – October 21, 2013) The United States is set to replace Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and gas combined by the end of this year. This is just one element of a rapidly shifting global energy environment that is revolutionizing Russia’s once-dominant position. RFE/RL takes a look at the challenges and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 18, 2013) International pressure on Russia over the arrest of Greenpeace activists mounted Thursday as 11 Nobel Peace Prize winners urged President Vladimir Putin to drop the piracy charges against them. The 11 laureates made such an appeal in a letter sent to the Russian president, Greenpeace said. The letter, which […]
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(Interfax – VERONA, Italy, October 18, 2013) Many European politicians do not realize that their countries would not benefit from producing shale gas, the head of contract structuring and pricing at LLC Gazprom Export, Sergei Komlev believes. “I think that there is no full understanding of this problem in Europe, particularly an understanding of the production costs of this issue. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 16, 2013) Macroeconomic factors will work to push oil prices down next year, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said during a meeting the State Duma budget committee. Klepach said that that, in the forecast for Russia’s socioeconomic development in 2014-2016, there is built in the hypothesis “that the rather high oil prices we are seeing […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – October 11, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s human rights adviser urged prosecutors to drop piracy charges against Greenpeace activists for an Arctic protest, saying it’s as stupid as accusing them of raping the oil platform they scaled. “These charges are laughable because there isn’t the slightest justification for accusing the crew […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, October 11, 2013) Russia has hit back at Ukraine after the Ukrainian prime minister threatened to stop all natural gas imports from Russia within the next few years unless the current gas contract is reviewed. On Thursday, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov told RIA Novosti and Rossiya 24 TV channel that “Ukraine may stop buying […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 10, 2013) The piracy charges, based on which the crew of the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise was arrested, are ungrounded and should be reconsidered, Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential human rights council, said. “I hope this decision will be reconsidered. In any case, we will turn to the prosecutor general. He has potential for […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, October 9, 2013) Decommissioned Russian warheads are fueling “approximately half of the nuclear energy in the United States,” a senior US State Department official said Wednesday. “Over the past 15 years, nuclear fuel from this source has accounted for approximately 10 percent of all electricity produced in the United States,” US Acting Under Secretary of State […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, October 10, 2013) Ukraine may stop all natural gas imports from Russia within the next few years if the current gas contract is not reviewed, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Thursday. “Under the existing gas prices we have reduced and will continue to reduce [gas imports], and in the future and this is not […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – October 10, 2013) Ilham Aliyev was headed to win Wednesday’s presidential election in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, in what some analysts say is the perfect demonstration of how oil revenues can strengthen a country’s leader both domestically and internationally. During the decade that Aliyev ruled the country after succeeding his […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) The current challenge for the Russian economy is the need to accelerate labor productivity gains, since the current slow pace means that the economic orientation on raw materials extraction will continue, President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow on Wednesday at the Russia Calling investment forum organized by VTB Capital. “For Russia, the main, crucial […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013) The majority of Russians approve of the piracy charges against 28 Greenpeace activists who were detained in late September after trying to climb an Gazprom-owned oil drilling rig in the Arctic to protest its environmental impact. A survey from state pollster VTsIOM published Wednesday showed that 60 percent of the respondents believe […]
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(OilPrice.com – Daniel J. Graeber – September 26, 2013 – article also appeared at http://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Economy/World-Bank-Russian-Energy-Strength-is-Economic-Weakness.html; a version of the article also appeared in The Christian Science Monitor as “Is Russia’s economy running out of gas?” at http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0926/Is-Russia-s-economy-running-out-of-gas) The head of the World Bank in Russia said Wednesday he was alarmed by the slowdown in the Russian economy. The bank said the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – September 26, 2013) It is impossible to stop Arctic exploitation, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, adding that Russia guaranteed that there would be no environmental catastrophe, since the most innovative technologies would be used. SALEKHARD, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District The time for an industrial breakthrough has come in the Arctic, President Vladimir […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. September 24, 2013) Russia’s human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he expected that the Russian authorities would not punish the activists of the Greenpeace environmental organization too severely for their protest rally against oil extraction in the Pechora Sea. “I hope that our authorities will realize that they nevertheless had admirable and noble motives and that they […]
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(Interfax – September 25, 2013) The Russian government plans to actively promote production of hydrocarbons and the development of LNG projects, and the country aims to have a 20 percent share of the world liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by 2030, Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said at the Sakhalin Oil and Gas 2013 conference. “The Russian Federation is currently […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIEV, September 25, 2013) Diversification of natural gas supplies by Ukraine and Europe made “gas wars” with Russia impossible, the Ukrainian foreign minister said on Tuesday. Russia and Ukraine have long fought over natural gas deliveries, jeopardizing supplies to Europe, a major Russian gas buyer. In the row at the start of 2009, Russia halted all […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2013) With news of a potential meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and his newly-elected Iranian counterpart President Hassan Rouhani raising hopes that the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear program might finally come to an end, Russia has handed over control of Iran’s single nuclear power plant to domestic specialists. Russia and Iran signed […]
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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 From: PONARS Eurasia / IERES <ieresgwu@gwu.edu> Subject: REMINDER – PONARS Eurasia Policy Conference – September 23-24, 2013 IERES – The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies We are pleased to invite you to the annual PONARS Eurasia Policy Conference September 23-24, 2013 GW Elliott School of International Affairs 1957 E Street NW Washington DC […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, September 13, 2013) The United States will overtake Russia in liquid fuel production this quarter, strengthening a US return to prominence as a global fuel powerhouse after years of decline, US media reported this week, citing an energy industry report. Russia currently produces more liquid oil and gas, pumping out 10.81 million barrels per day (bpd) […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 13, 2013) Rosneft president and Kremlin insider Igor Sechin is facing accusations of corporate misconduct that could be reviewed by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, within a week, a news report said Friday. Gennady Osorgin, a minority shareholder in the Rosneft-owned TNK-BP Holding, sent a complaint regarding Sechin to RSPP’s […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – September 10, 2013) In the face of persistently high inflation and capital outflows, the Russian government has decided to freeze energy tariffs, which will give the economy a short-term boost, but will also stymie the long-term development of the economy. Times are tough in Russia after economic growth dropped […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – September 9, 2013) On the eve of elections, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave the government three days to prepare a feasibility study on how a possible freeze on natural monopolies’ prices next year might affect economic growth and business in general. The Cabinet on Friday was ordered to evaluate by Monday the […]
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(RIA Novosti – ST. PETERSBURG, September 5, 2013) Russian and Chinese state corporations signed a string of economic agreements including another document paving the way for the long-awaited multi-billion dollar gas deal, after President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met Thursday at the G20 summit in the city of St. Petersburg. Russian gas giant Gazprom and the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 29, 2013) Gazprom, one of Moscow’s main sources of leverage in Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, is losing its positions in both places, something that has domestic consequences as well because the company is one of the largest taxpayers of the Russian Federation, according to a Moscow analyst. In […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 27, 2013) Russia could receive the anticipated $17 billion from the 20-year megatons-to-megawatts deal with the United States which expires in 2013. Techsnabexport (Tenex), the Russian agent for the contract, said in a report that a preliminary estimate of revenue from the deal had been made, taking into account the low-enriched uranium deliveries, natural uranium sales […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Russia expects that its application to the United Nations to approve its bid for extending the boundary of its part of the Sea of Okhotsk section of the continental shelf will receive consideration in the international organization early next year, said Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Denis Khramov. Russia also wants the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 13, 2013) Moscow, having helped Iran to build its atomic power station at Bushehr over the last two decades, is now negotiating with Tehran to construct one or more such stations, despite Israeli and Western concerns that Iran is using such facilities, despite its promises to the contrary, to produce nuclear […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtime.com – Anatoly Medetsky – July 17, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday again said the Cabinet was slacking off. He blamed ministers for getting behind schedule in executing measures to develop the country’s Far East. “I’ll tell you what, dear friends, will you ever get to work or not? What is this?” Putin said, according to […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – RFE/RL’s Russian Service – July 16, 2013) Amid an apparent split in the ranks, the feminist punk performance-art group Pussy Riot has released a new music video lashing out at the oil industry; Igor Sechin, the head of Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft; and others. Copies of the video were released to RFE/RL on July 16 […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, July 12, 2013) Russia is doing relatively well, but needs a strong global economy to sustain and improve its recent growth, which makes the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) Summit it is hosting in September critically important to the country, Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, told a conference in Washington on Friday […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 9, 2013) Russia will no longer classify data on reserves of oil and dissolved gas in oil under a government resolution signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on July 5. The declassification will simplify procedures for providing information about original oil and associated gas in place, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said previously. It will […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – July 2, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged gas-exporting countries to step up joint efforts to deal with challenges that originated in the United States and Europe. He spoke at a conference of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, or GECF, which brought together delegates from such places as Iran, Qatar and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 2, 2013) Abandoning the basic principles used to draw up long-term gas contracts will in the final analysis undermine the energy security of gas importing countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit in Moscow on Monday. He told delegates at the organization’s second meeting that the application of new […]
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(Interfax, MOSCOW, June 28, 2013) Turkey could become the biggest importer of Russian gas before very long, overtaking Germany, Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) CEO Alexei Miller told reporters. “Turkey wants to buy more of our gas as its needs grow and possibly due to a shortfall from other suppliers. The growth could be 20% in the near future on top of […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Russian oil giant Rosneft, hydropower holding company RusHydro and the nation’s second-largest lender VTB Bank are among assets that should stay under state control, Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Thursday after presenting the government’s new privatization plan for 2014-2016. “Proceeding from the current state of world markets and problems with the […]
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(Kremlin.ru – June 21, 2013) Text of report “Answers to questions from St Petersburg International Economic Forum participants, 21 June 2013, St Petersburg” published in English by Russian presidential website on 24 June; subheadings added editorially: Russia’s priorities in G20 MODERATOR (retranslated): Mr President, the St Petersburg International Economic Forum is being held in your hometown. I would like to […]
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(Interfax -MOSCOW. June 24, 2013) Without the large-scale application of new technologies, oil production in Russia will begin to decline in 2016-2017, says a report by Lukoil (RTS: LKOH) on the main trends in the development of global markets for oil and gas in the period until 2025. A characteristic of a majority of Russian deposits is the natural drop […]
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(Interfax – BRUSSELS, May 30, 2013) Natural gas consumers can only be guaranteed reliable and stable supplies if there are long-term contracts in place that entail take-or-pay terms, Deputy CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) Alexander Medvedev said in Brussels on Thursday. “It is precisely these (long-term contracts) that serve as the foundation of the gas business, providing […]
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