An Energy Eye on Russia: Week 4/ Russian Police Raid BP Venture (Reuters)

The theory is that Russia wants "to buy out the Russian billionaire shareholders in the venture [in TNK-BP, a venture of BP and some billionaire Russians] to become a partner of BP in a bid to further tighten the grip over energy resources."
For those of you who weren't paying attention, because it wasn't exactly news...

"Gazprom's chairman Dmitry Medvedev won Russia's presidential election by a landslide earlier this month and has promised to follow the policies of his mentor Vladimir Putin, the architect of renationalisation of the oil industry of the past year."

Apparently the Government gave two separate reasons for the search at different times, the first: a criminal investigation into an oil firm previously related to the Russian shareholders and not BP. The second: an investigation into TNK-BP's management.

Some similarities:

"Searches and document seizures became commonplace during a campaign against oil firms YUKOS, which was brought to its knees under a multi-billion dollar back tax claim, which led to its bankruptcy and asset sales at state-forced auctions."

"In February, police raided the headquarters of Slavneft, which TNK-BP co-owns with Gazprom, and also confiscated documents in a five-year-old tax evasion investigation."

BBC:

"The searches have renewed fears that the Russian government wants greater control of foreign-owned energy assets.
......
Last year, TNK-BP was forced to sell its stake in the Kovykta gas field at a discount price to Gazprom.
In 2006, Shell was forced to cede control of its Sakhalin gas field to Gazprom.
"We will co-operate with the authorities but we do not know what they were looking for or why they were there," a BP spokesman said."

Ah well. Good old Russia. Search and seizure. So much for Europe. Further emasculated.

Request: Would someone who knows realities please write about the effect on Energy Trade with Mexico and Canada should we change/end NAFTA?

An Energy Eye on Russia is taking the week off - because it's always the same thing. So now we move from Europe to North America:

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and ending NAFTA and its effect on our energy trade in North America came up - and using that against the Democratic nominee.

This article, "The Pipes that Bend", is about all I know.

"Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson mused this week that Ottawa might wield oil exports as a bargaining chip if NAFTA is reopened - as U.S. Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton apparently want. Veiled threats about Canada's energy riches have been used sporadically over the years in the face of U.S. protectionist threats."

The bargaining implications are kind of what I'm interested in. Personally, I don't think energy will be a problem - I would say, as I guess the article says, that business would just continue what they are doing outside of politics.

Renegotiating energy trade and strengthening Mexico's production policies under NAFTA seem to be an aim for the future. I read part of NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges Chapter 7 from the Institute for International Economics, which says:

"Although the United States and Canada have largely integrated their energy markets, the ultimate goal of a unified North American energy market is still a long way off. The United States and Canada should continue to deepend cooperation in the areas of infrastructure planning and regulation. They should encourage Mexico to pursue tax and energy policies that will generate domestic revenues that can fund expansion of oil and gas production and electricity generation. Such reforms are needed first and foremost to provide a strong foundation for Mexican economic growth. In so doing, Mexico would also contribute to North American energy security and thus to the long-term health of the North American economy -on which Mexico is so dependent."

I suppose that with the North American trade agreements and current energy abilities of all three countries, they kind of avoid the powerful position that Russia controls (with the gas pipelines) in the European Union. It's an interesting situation to contrast.

An Energy Eye on Russia: Week 4/Who cares about international relations when we have pirates?

So Russia and the U.S. are making Uranium deals and Russia is pledging to provide consistent energy supplies. Big Deal. There are PIRATES in Somalia! They stole a TUGBOAT!

The tugboat is part of a Gazprom led consortium including Shell and Mitsubishi that is building the Sakhalin oil and gas projects (1-4.) This tugboat is apparently part of Sakhalin II oil and gas project. What I have gleaned.. this means a large LNG Plant (that can supply 8% of the world's Natural Gas) and an Oil Export terminal. The problem is that the construction of these projects and their pipelines in the ocean habitat threatens to cause extinction of endangered gray whales and fishing areas. The World Wildlife Fund finds the project in breach of environmental regulations. So the environmental groups are in an uproar... which means..

Even Better.


Environmental Pirates Steal Tugboat!!

Well no, it's the "Ocean Salvation Corps - a group of 'Somali nationalists who took it upon themselves to protect the country's shores.'" Much less exciting. But apparently they take care of the crew and just want to stop destruction of habitats. YaY Vigilantes!

Let's hear some demands next time.

An Energy Eye on Russia: Week 3.5/U.S. Worried about Russia's Energy Power and the Ukraine wants to cut out the Middleman (Russia)

U.S. Worried About Russia's Balkan Energy Grab

The headline about says it all. The U.S. sees Russia's moves as "strategic", asking the Serbs.. Did you consider that MAYBE Russia is looking to gain "possible economic dependency and possibility of political control."?? Hmm???

The U.S. of course supports Energy Diversity through Nabucco (EU Pipeline), not South Stream (Russian Pipeline).

Interesting definitions of Energy Security here. Serbs said it was the deal with Russia (split 50-50) - EU and US say it's Nabucco.


Forbes: Energy Sector Round Up (Associated Press)

I'm not quite sure of the logistics of this? Does it mean Nabucco?

"Ukraine's prime minister says the country wants to buy natural gas supplies directly instead of going through an intermediary company partially owned by Russia."

"Nearly all of Ukraine's gas imports come through Russia from the energy-rich central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. The gas is imported through the Swiss-based trading company RosUkrEnergo, half of which is owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom and half by two Ukrainian businessmen."

In other news, did you hear that Turkmenistan is giving its citizens free energy? That's Energy Rich and People Poor.

An Energy Eye on Russia: Week 2/Bulgaria 4 Days Ago, Today "Gazprom Takes Control of Serbian Oil"

So the date set by the BBC article I read on Friday quoted January 28th as the deadline for Serbia to decide on its deal with Gazprom. It seems that Dejan Stojadinovic is right, Serbia just cannot refuse the cashy "security of supply" from Gazprom. Though, I might once again reference the Ukraine in 2006 - which also affected Serbia. Serbia, according to the BBC, relies on Russia for 91% of its gas.

In fact, it seems I was misled by the BBC title "EU warns Serbs on Russia Gas Deal" as a Slovenian expert is quoted by the NYTIMES as saying “In all its negotiations with Serbia when dealing with the future status of Kosovo, the E.U. never brought up with Serbia the issue of energy security and how Serbia could play an important role for Europe.”

Serbia is offered the position as a gas hub, with the South Stream pipeline being directed through Serbia. Additionally, energy infrastructure improvements have also been promised.

Even more importantly, Russia has no intention of liberating Kosovo - exactly the opposite of the US and the EU. But then again.. the EU "hopes" this isn't the driving factor.

Is the EU upset about the energy deal? Or are they just concerned for Kosovo? Belgrade said the EU couldn't possible supply Serbia with the gas it needed. If I were the EU, I'd be upset about both. Now what?

This kind of reminds me of a game of Risk - except my friends would sometimes flip the board after enough deals went south.

An Energy Eye on Russia: Week 1/ Bulgaria-Russia Gas Pipeline

This is the first post for "An Energy Eye on Russia." Russian energy deals, policies, and plans for the future (something I don't currently follow, but want to learn.)

Not forgetting that Russia is the third largest oil producer and almost monopolizes the energy supply to Europe, the following article from back in October is what brought my attention to Russia.
A Killing in Siberia Injures Russia's Green Movement
which can be found in full here: http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=2614
The article cites Russia's goal to be the Nuclear energy provider to countries without the capability, as well as environmental protest against Nuclear power and a little bit of political oppression and intrigue.

I have an interest in the debate over whether or not Nuclear is a renewable/clean energy or not. I am also intrigued by the reasoning behind and against protests that Nuclear Fusion research removes funding from other, more friendly (?) renewables (e.g. Solar Energy.) The cleanliness of Nuclear has already been approached this blogging week in Nuclear Power, Should we be using it? and Nuclear Power is Not Clean.

But today we turn to Russia's sealed deal with Bulgaria:
"The South Stream gas scheme, said to be worth 10bn euros ($14.66bn; £7.4bn), is being jointly developed by Gazprom and the Italian firm, ENI.

The ...pipeline is expected to take Russian gas under the Black Sea and overland across Bulgaria to markets in southern Europe. Russia has offered to site a major gas hub in Serbia, a traditional ally.

Bulgaria had also received an offer from the US and EU to join the rival Nabucco project.

Nabucco envisages bringing Central Asian gas through Bulgaria to Europe, in a move intended to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian resources."

Russia is most certainly an energy heavy weight flexing its muscles, and I'm interested to see how the EU and US respond in order to avoid Russia's Energy Power (haha) from increasing. Particularly in the old USSR. Will it come down to old friendships and grudges? Future security? Or plain old price? Russia did use its power to persuade the Ukraine by cutting off gas exports in 2006.

The deal also included plans for a Nuclear plant in Bulgaria,

The article has a map of both the Russian South Stream pipeline - connecting Russia and Italy, and the Nabucco pipeline - going through Turkey to Central Asia. However, the article cites the largest block to the EU and US aim to challenge Russia's energy prowess by transporting gas from Turkmenistan. However, Turkmenistan just sold its supplies to Russia. Turkmenistan using the unofficial (after all, worst case scenario, the two pipelines will be "complementary") contest as leverage.

Next time: I hope to get more into the recent events (Serbian sale to Gazprom and EU membership) of Russian energy deals and the influence of former Soviet Union politics. Supposed to be signed by the 28th. (See last week's BBC article)