Latest Articles about Central Europe
A POLITICAL SUMMIT MIGHT RESUSCITATE THE NABUCCO PROJECT
The European Union’s Nabucco pipeline project for transporting Caspian gas to Europe continues to experience false starts and outright setbacks. The impasse seems to justify the Hungarian proposal to hold a summit of the Nabucco consortium countries and the relevant gas producer countries, with the... MORE
HUNGARY’S MOL DRIVING REGIONAL CONSOLIDATION IN OIL AND GAS SECTOR
Hungary’s energy company MOL has initiated the construction of gas pipeline interconnections with Romania and Croatia. Concurrently, MOL is edging out its competitors in oil refining and fuel marketing in the region, most recently in Croatia. On July 3 in Zagreb, MOL’s gas transmission subsidiary... MORE
UNCONVENTIONAL GAS EXTRACTION IN HUNGARY
Hungary’s MOL oil and gas company has entered into a partnership with ExxonMobil of the United States and Falcon Oil & Gas of British Columbia, Canada, to develop the gas deposits in Hungary’s Mako Trough. With this project, North American energy companies are directly entering... MORE
POLAND IS CAUGHT BETWEEN MOSCOW AND WASHINGTON
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk won the parliamentary elections last November, promising to improve radically relations with Russia, which went sour under the previous administration of the Kacziynski brothers. Lech Kacziynski continues to be Polish President but has little influence on actual decision making. Tusk... MORE
GAS COMPANIES WELCOME HUNGARIAN MOL’S “NETS” PROJECT FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
On March 14 Romania hosted the first joint meeting of the gas transmission companies from Central Europe and Balkan countries to consider the NETS project. Hungary’s energy company MOL initiated the NETS project -- New Europe Transmission Systems -- last December (see EDM, December 10,... MORE
SOUTH STREAM GAS PROJECT DEFEATING NABUCCO BY DEFAULT
Gazprom’s blitzkrieg capture of five European Union member countries for its South Stream project, preempting the EU- and U.S.-backed Nabucco project, has shattered the credibility of Brussels’ and Washington’s energy security agendas. Country after country (excepting the lone holdout, Romania) have succumbed to the Kremlin-backed... MORE
HUNGARY’S SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT JOINS GAZPROM’S SOUTH STREAM PROJECT
On February 28 Hungary’s Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany joined Russia’s outgoing and incoming presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow to seal an intergovernmental agreement on Gazprom’s further expansion into European Union territory via Hungary. Hungary’s privately owned energy company MOL is staying... MORE
NABUCCO PROJECT APPROACHING A REAL START
Germany’s Rheinisch- Westfaelische Elektrizitaetswerk (RWE) has joined the EU- and US-supported Nabucco pipeline project for Caspian gas to Europe. RWE is Germany’s largest energy company overall and second-largest gas distributor. On February 5 in Vienna, the Nabucco consortium’s five founding companies -- Austria’s OMV as... MORE
HUNGARY’S MOL STAYS WITH NABUCCO, BUT PRIME MINISTER WEIGHS SOUTH STREAM ALSO
Gazprom-controlled Kommersant claimed on December 13 that Hungary's MOL energy company has invited Gazprom to join the New Europe Transmission System (NETS), a proposal just launched by MOL to interconnect the gas transmission networks of at least seven Central and South-East European countries within an... MORE
NETS: JOINT GAS TRANSMISSION NETWORK PROPOSED IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
The Hungarian energy company MOL is proposing the unification of gas transmission pipeline systems in Central and Southeastern Europe, within a new and independent regional gas transmission network. The existing systems are nationally owned and operated, mainly under state ownership. MOL is privately owned. The... MORE