... influencing EU-Russia energy relations.
Analyzing the following data gives us a very simplistic, yet adequate idea of the ongoing demand trend in Europe. What the data fails to portray is the existing asymmetry of gas demand, consumption and dependency on Russian gas deliverers by different member states, which is critically important for the understanding of the existing gas interdependency.
Primary consumption of natural gas in EU-28 (+ Switzerland and Turkey)
2011 -10.0%
2012 -2.0%
2013 -1.5%
2014 -10.4%
2015 ...
... regard to its anti-monopoly laws. The original plan for landfall in the EU (Bulgaria) will now occur in Turkey, while the distribution hub for Europe will be located at the border of Turkey and Greece. Being a strategically important transit point for Russian gas going to Europe and bypassing Ukraine, Turkey tries to increase its bargaining power and engages into price arbitrage with Gazprom: 10.25% discount offered by Gazprom is deemed insufficient and Turkey does not want to receive anything less than15%....
... All it cares about is whether these activities generate revenue. The intertwining of the government apparatus and Gazprom does not promote competition on the domestic market in Russia. The gas sector needs to be liberalized, even if only partially, if Russian gas companies want to increase their competitiveness. But even if the Russian gas market is liberalized, the European structures are unlikely to change their attitude towards Russian gas supplies. Accordingly, Nord Stream 2 is necessary because it would ...
... falling post-crisis European energy demand. Just about a month ago Gazprom celebrated its 40th anniversary of successful trade relations with France, however, speaking about the multilateral EU level, one can feel a growing fear of unreliability of Russian gas delivery stemming from the disappointment over gas interruptions in 2006 and 2009 caused by the so-called gas war with Ukraine. Since then, the EU made energy an issue of common responsibility for the European member states, using the Lisbon Treaty ...
... be a politically and economically costly process, that will take time and energy away from dealing with Europe’s many other problems. Indeed the power of Russia’s energy giants is most acutely felt in the EU’s eastern Members, where Russian gas can account for up to 100% of imports.
REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
Igor Ivanov:
Russia and Europe: New Rules of the Game
To the north, Russia recently
submitted a claim
to over 463,000 square miles of the Arctic, and its Arctic zone is expected to contain ...
Developing Offshore Oil and Gas Resources in the Russian Arctic Shelf: Now and Tomorrow
Developing Offshore Oil and Gas Resources in the Russian Arctic Shelf: Now and Tomorrow
The Soviet Union started actively developing its Arctic shelf in the early 1980s. The most promising areas of the Arctic shelf ...
... should be noted that despite the continuing confrontation between Moscow and the West on the question of the Ukraine crisis, Ankara still hopes that this will not have a big impact on its energy cooperation with Russia, and it will continue to take Russia gas via the Trans-Balkan pipeline under new possible agreements beyond 2019.
In conclusion it should be stated that although the new political situation in Turkey following the June elections will not cause a critical shift in Turkish–Russian relations ...
BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – The European Union is trying to maintain the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine for politically motivated reasons, Russian Envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.
"I think they have the ultimate goal of keeping the Ukrainian transit, which is a purely political stance. It does not have any economic basis," ...
... which theoretically would run through Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. It remains only to explain who would pay for this pipeline.
Skopje and Belgrade are not part of the European gas system, but they need an alternative supply route, since Russian gas still comes to them via Ukraine.
The main obstacle to rapid construction of the Turkish Stream, however, is the expense of the project, especially given the difficult market conditions in Russia. The cost of the total complex of works to construct ...
... Greek authorities, which aims to make the country a major gas hub in Southeast Europe. At the same time, however, the Greek Prime Minister has stated that the country will act in strict compliance with EU legislation and, in addition to supplies of Russian gas, is planning on developing joint projects with other potential exporters of natural gas on the European markets, namely, Azerbaijan and Cyprus.
The negotiations did not touch upon the issue of Greece receiving discounts on Russian gas, although we ...
