... absorbed Bashneft in 2016 and thus strengthened its position, participates in the development of blocks 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13, as well as in the Block 12 project. At the same time, some companies plan to expand their activities in Iraq, and a number of other Russian oil and gas companies are interested in starting such work. The total investment of Russian companies in Iraq exceeds $13 billion.
Iraq itself continues to be subject to the dynamics of the US confrontation with Iran, and it remains unclear if the upcoming change ...
... № 48/2019
This working paper was prepared by the Russian International Affairs Council as part of the RIAC’s project on «Conflicts in the Middle East: Tools and Strategies for Settlement». This paper is devoted to analyzing the situation in the oil and gas market in Iraq and Syria, as well as the energy policy of Russia in the Arab Mashreq region. The authors also analyze Iraq’s oil prospects in the post-war period under sanctions against Iran. Special attention is paid to the Kurdish factor and the role the Kurds play in the future of energy in the region, ...
... all while counterbalancing the aspirations of the United States and NATO.
Western journalists regularly accuse Russia of militarizing the Arctic. In reality, Russia’s only real military presence here is in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. These ports are Russia’s only access point to the world’s ocean. Strategically, there are no other viable options. Developing the Arctic economically through new shipping routes or oil and gas projects is made all the more difficult by the harsh climate, the poor existing infrastructure and the Arctic’s vast expanses. Today, there is no success story that Russia might use as a template to follow. Time and money are the only answers to ...
... as well as entities acting on behalf or owning over 50 percent of the above organizations (if the entities were established inside the EU). Also Gazprombank and other ones listed in Annex III are prohibited to provide investment services.
Such restrictions negatively impact Russian oil and gas industry since it significantly depends on foreign know-how and technologies despite import substitution programs.
Threats and Challenges for Russia’s Arctic Activity under Sanctions
Currently, the success of developing ...
... Yemen. It is the modern “Cold War” of the Middle-East. One of the reasons Saudi Arabia did not join the Astana initiative is that Iran is a founder. The Saudis does not fear a Russian influence in Syria, but they rather fear an Iranian one. Plus, Russians and Saudis have a lot to discuss and cooperate such as Oil and Gas markets, they have to deal openly at some point. It is in none favour to go into a confrontation in Syria or the Middle-East. As a result, the Saudis had started to view the Russian role in the Middle-East as stability guaranteer. The Saudis also ...
... which stands among the most important topics of contemporary economic discourse, with a focus on Russia’s position and development. He divided the presentation into three parts: the sanctions and their effect on the Russian market, the world price of oil, and the role of gas in Russia’s future.
He first discussed the impact of sanctions on the development of Russian energy, claiming that the sanctions themselves did not cause significant damage to Russia’s energy industry, but contributed instead to the balancing of industry ...
... under Sanctions
The Russian fuel and energy complex had sanctions imposed on it back in 2014. Being a Crimean company, the Chernomorneftegaz enterprise was added to the sanctions list, so this case does not represent the attitude of the U.S. to the Russian oil and gas sector in general. The U.S. government disallowed their companies to fund Russia’s largest oil companies. This was supposed to affect the investment opportunities of the Russian majors, resulting in a decrease in oil production in Russia, followed ...
... its goal of reducing their share in the Zohr project to 50%
[2]
. Russian reluctance to enter exploration projects in Egypt is a logical choice on the one hand, yet indefensible on the other.
On one hand, this is because unlike European companies, Russian oil and gas business has little experience of exploration in Egypt. Traditionally, the European BP, Eni, and Total have the strongest positions in North Africa. These companies have more information about the geology of Egypt. Besides, Russian companies are generally ...
... programmes shrinking in all the oil exporting countries and with the existing strategic contradictions between Saudi Arabia and Russia, Moscow will find working with the two Middle Eastern countries at once to be an extremely difficult balancing act.
The oil-and-gas cooperation plans recently announced by Russia and Saudi Arabia may sound like part of a rapprochement trend. Yet one should not expect too much from this rhetoric. It is possible that, rather than reflecting the two countries' enthusiasm about the prospects for economic partnership, their ...
... implementing joint projects. Transferring international tensions into the Arctic against the background of sanctions may prompt Russia to consider involving non-regional actors, primarily Asian states, in the Arctic cooperation. Under such circumstances,... ... serious changes, and the volume of contracts for Western-made shelf development equipment may decline significantly.
Arctic Oil and Gas Resource Development: Current Situation and Prospects
, 1,26 Мб
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