Russian natural gas exports to Germany grew to 40.2 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2013, a hefty increase over the preceding year’s 33.2 bcm, according to Gazprom’s sales report for 2013 (Interfax, January 16, 2014).A growing share of that increasing volume enters Germany through the... MORE

Hungary’s Fidesz-led government under Viktor Orban, conservative and Europe-oriented in a traditionalist sense, and strongly anti-communist ever since Fidesz’s formative years, has turned toward Russia for solutions to some of Hungary’s main economic problems, especially in the energy sector. This government seems convinced, for example,... MORE

On February 6, Hungary’s parliament approved the Russian-Hungarian agreement for cooperation on nuclear energy. Under the agreement, Rosatom shall build two nuclear power blocs in Hungary, financed by Russian state credit. Hungary’s conservative government, led by the Fidesz party and enjoying a parliamentary supermajority (slightly... MORE

Gazelle, the new gas transit pipeline in the Czech Republic, completed in 2013, is conceived to function as a prolongation of the Gazprom-controlled Nord Stream and OPAL pipelines into continental Europe; albeit free of Gazprom’s control on the Czech Republic’s territory.The Gazelle pipeline is dedicated... MORE

According to Russia’s state-owned PRIME business news agency, European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has told journalists that the European Commission is set to reach an agreement with the Russian government on Gazprom’s access to the OPAL pipeline in Germany (PRIME, January 27). Russian President... MORE

The European Union–Russia biannual summit, postponed from December 2013 and held on January 28, 2014, and reduced to three hours instead of the customary one and a half or two days, perforce omitted energy from its agenda. The severely abbreviated summit in Brussels had to... MORE

With the backing of the Kremlin, and some help from interested European parties, Gazprom is intent on rolling back the European Union’s Third Energy Legislation Package on EU territory. The Russian government and Gazprom have signed inter-governmental and corporate agreements to build sections of the... MORE

Azerbaijan is prepared to supply European Union countries with natural gas for decades to come and in growing volumes. The giant Shah Deniz field, where the producers’ consortium has just approved Phase Two of development (see EDM, January 14), is planned to start commercial production... MORE

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the start-up of the largest European energy infrastructure project, involving: Shah Deniz Phase Two of field development and three dedicated pipelines to connect that Azerbaijani gas field with European Union territory. The... MORE

Russian Gazprom is taking over most of the core business of its German partner, Wintershall, in the natural gas trade and storage business. The two companies had conducted that business through the Wintershall-Gazprom joint venture, WINGAS, from 1993 to date. Gazprom is now turning WINGAS... MORE