Latest Articles about Energy

Will China Join the Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline?

For over a decade Iran, Pakistan and India (IPI) have took pains at negotiating a major pipeline deal whereby Iran would send natural gas from its territory to the region. Yet geopolitical and commercial issues have repeatedly prevented the deal's fruition despite Tehran's growing need... MORE

Croatia Joins Gazprom’s South Stream Project

On March 2, in Moscow, Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jadranka Kosor of Croatia opened the way for Russian state companies’ expansion into that country and to the Adriatic coast. The Moscow talks covered oil, natural gas, and shipbuilding. Croatia’s energy sector was... MORE

Russia’s Energy Development Drive Slows Down

Against the background of difficult international energy market conditions Russian companies have become less interested in finding new oil and gas fields and developing existing deposits. Notably, the country’s gas monopoly Gazprom dropped its earlier plans to take over a giant Kovykta deposit and has... MORE

Hungary Hosts Region-Wide Summit on Energy Security

The prime ministers of eleven countries in Central and Southeastern Europe met on February 24 in Budapest, for the first Energy Security Summit in this region. Hungary initiated the meeting as the current chairman of the Visegrad Four group of Central European countries, inviting the... MORE

Delays in Turkish-Azeri Gas Deal Raises Uncertainty Over Nabucco

Turkey and Azerbaijan have proven unable to conclude their negotiations on natural gas cooperation, which have been in progress for over one year. Turkish-Azeri gas talks include several issues involving the revision of the price Turkey pays for its imports from Shah Deniz-I, the determination... MORE

Adriatic Watch: a Must for the European Commission

Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, is expected in Moscow on March 2 for her first official visit (HINA, February 24). Kosor’s talks with the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Kremlin-connected energy companies may yield a breakthrough into Croatia’s energy sector. Such a breakthrough could... MORE

Central Asia’s Energy Wars

Since the winter energy crisis two years ago, when freezing temperatures lasted for several weeks, cooperation dynamics within Central Asia have witnessed rapid change. Upstream Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which rely on electricity imports during winter, were hit particularly badly as they were unable to supply... MORE

Russian Authorities Threaten BP Assets at Kovykta Project

Russia’s Natural Environment Inspectorate (RosPrirodNadzor) has recommended that BP’s joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, be stripped of the giant Kovykta natural gas project in eastern Siberia (Interfax, February 19).Located in eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk oblast, the Kovykta field holds an estimated 2 trillion cubic meters of... MORE

Gazprom Playing With Poor Options on South Stream in the Black Sea

On February 17 in Bucharest, Gazprom Vice-President Aleksandr Medvedev conferred with Romanian officials on a range of bilateral projects. Medvedev hinted at possible Romanian participation in Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline project, from Russia to Europe via the Black Sea. On the previous day in Sofia,... MORE

Bulgarian Government Skeptical on South Stream Project

Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller held talks in Sofia on February 16 “to activate work on the South Stream project in Bulgaria” (Interfax, February 16). Bulgaria is the country most pivotal to South Stream. The pipeline is planned to run from Russia across the Black Sea... MORE