In the configuration of Central Asia, China, Russia energy, China is increasing its geo-economic Influence but Russia remains the main military-strategic power.
Continue reading →Russia is gambling big with its Turkish Stream problem. Gazprom is preparing to begin work on the Turkish Stream pipeline without there being an Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement in place. The Japanese firm Saipem, which Russia has been paying for months … Continue reading →
Interview on John Batchelor Show, WABC-AM (770AM, New York City), 18 May 2015.
Turkish Stream pipeline prospects are not good in the long run even if Russia immediately begins laying the pipeline originally commissioned for use in South Stream.
Errors have infiltrated reports of Russian-Turkish gas negotiations. Correcting them reveals that Russia is trying to take advantage of the deterioration of EU-Turkey relations, but Turkey is not taking the bait.
Continue reading →Interview on John Batchelor Show, WABC-AM 770 (New York City), 22 January 2015. … Continue reading →
Russia continues to play hardball with natural gas for the European Union, trying to get Brussels to sacrifice Ukraine in return for the promise of better relations with Moscow. This geo-economic and power-political jousting is conditioned by the fact that EU sanctions against Russia will begin to expire in three phases between March and July unless there is an EU consensus to keep them in place.
Continue reading →The appearance of Nabucco financing sources has made possible the signing this week of a transit agreement to govern the natural gas pipeline. The agreement marks an important staging post in bringing to reality the long-touted energy route, which is … Continue reading →
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and Kazakhstan’s state monopoly KazMunaiGaz (KMG) this month signed an agreement moving Caspian energy projects for Europe forward as they set out the main principles for a transport system to convey Kazakhstani oil across the … Continue reading →
Recent weeks have seen increasing United States activity in favor of constructing the Trans-Caspian Pipeline for natural gas (TCGP, Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline) from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan. But what are the chances of anything really happening? From the technical standpoint, there … Continue reading →
For much of the period since the November 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul, this column has principally discussed developments concerning the Baku-Ceyhan main export pipeline (MEP). I wish to shift gears here for an extended review of recent events related … Continue reading →