Latest Articles about Energy

US Now Threatening Sanctions Against Nord Stream Two Contractors, Not Just Partners
The Donald Trump administration has moved beyond browbeating the European countries involved in the Nord Stream Two project and threatening sanctions against the natural gas pipeline’s partners; it is now making the same threats against its contractors. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor... MORE

Georgia Renegotiating Gas Transit Contract With Russian Gazprom
The two-year contract between the government of Georgia and the Russian energy giant Gazprom on natural gas transit from Russia to Armenia expired on December 31, 2018 (Georgia Today, January 21, 2019). And talks are now ongoing about extending or renegotiating this arrangement. Tbilisi and... MORE

Russia-Ukraine Gas Transit Talks Look Ahead Post-2020
On January 21, in Brussels, Russia and Ukraine held ministerial-level talks on the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe via Ukraine (TASS, January 22, 2019). The European Commission is chairing this process, and the ministerial meeting just held in Brussels was the second at... MORE

A Year in Review: Azerbaijan Optimizes Its Balanced Foreign Policy in 2018
Azerbaijan saw several important events in 2018—both domestic and external and sometimes interlinked. And a major takeaway from contextualizing the past year has been Baku’s cautious optimization of its existing balanced foreign policy. In particular, when looked at together, the events of 2018 suggest that... MORE

Belarus’s Sovereignty and Russia’s Brotherly Embrace
In just the month of December 2018, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus met three times: in St. Petersburg on the 6th (see EDM, December 12, 2018) and in Moscow on the 25th and 29th. On the two last occasions, they... MORE

The Balkan Gas Hub: A European Gas Trading Platform or South Stream Lite?
With the completion, in November, of the offshore section of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline from Russia to western Turkey, the Bulgarian government kicked its preparations for creating a Balkan Gas Hub into high gear. On November 30, Bulgaria’s parliament included the construction of the... MORE

Is Chechnya Finally Going to Control Its Own Oil Reserves—and Thus Its Destiny?
In one pivotal scene in David Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, Thomas. E. Lawrence asks the British general in Cairo, Sir Edmund Allenby, to provide the Arab revolt with artillery. The general’s political advisor says that if he gives the Arabs artillery, he will... MORE

Russian and Non-Russian Pipelines to Supply Gas to Southern Europe Charge Ahead
Russia’s Gazprom has completed the underwater portion of the TurkStream pipeline, which will be able to carry 15.75 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year under the Black Sea, through Turkey, and on to Europe. At a ceremony marking the occasion, Presidents Recep... MORE

Despite US Sanctions on Iran, Green Light for the Southern Gas Corridor
The United States’ Federal Register published the “Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations” on November 5, re-imposing US sanctions on Iran (Federalregister.gov, November 5). This expected action by Washington had raised concerns in Baku about the potential implications of renewed Iran sanctions on Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-II... MORE

Nord Stream Two Makes New Headway, as Pressure Mounts to Block the Pipeline
Nearly a hundred members of the European Parliament (MEP) sent an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on November 7, imploring her to halt the construction of the Nord Stream Two natural gas pipeline. The MEPs referred to the pipeline—designed to carry an additional... MORE