Latest Articles about Energy

Baku-Beijing Relations and China’s Growing Interest in the South Caucasus
This past January, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended a session on “The Silk Road Effect” at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, alongside Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili (President.az, January 19). Presumably, the intention of both leaders was to promote the importance of the... MORE

Russian-Chinese Joint Ventures in Russia’s Far East, Arctic
Since 2001, Russian-Chinese relations have been largely grounded in security issues, both military and economic. The former is a shared perception of an increasingly aggressive United States and, in the case of Russia, concerns over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) deployments on the periphery... MORE

Moldova-Ukraine Energy Deal Upsets Russia by Cutting Transnistria Out
Ukraine’s DTEK Trading, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, and Moldova’s state-owned intermediary Energocom signed a one-year contract, on April 1, for the supply of electricity to Moldovan distributors. Energocom/DTEK’s only competitor was the Kuchurgan Power Station, which is located in Transnistria and belongs to the Russian... MORE

Despite Sanctions, Russia Presses Development of Arctic Energy Reserves
The director of the Russian transport ministry’s Department of Maritime and River Transportation, Vitalii Klyuyev, spoke, on March 24, at the “LNG [liquefied natural gas] Bunkering Market as an Alternative” conference, in St. Petersburg. Klyuyev told participants that the world’s first LNG tanker specifically constructed... MORE

Suspension of Azerbaijan’s EITI Membership: Repercussions for the Southern Gas Corridor
The International Board of Directors (BoD) of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) suspended Azerbaijan’s membership in the coalition. The decision came during the BOD’s 36th meeting (on March 8–9), in Colombia. The EITI promotes the open and accountable management of oil, natural gas and... MORE

Uzbekistan Accords Turkmenistan Status of Closest Neighbor and Partner
Three months since his election last December, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyaev made his first official trip abroad, visiting neighboring Turkmenistan on March 6–7. The visit put an end to rampant speculation about where his maiden foreign trip would take him. Some, for instance, had expected... MORE

Renewable Energy and the PLA’s Next Generation of Self-Sufficiency (Part 2)
Part One of this series examined the state of renewable energy in China and the connections between civilian and military industry partners. Part Two looks in detail at the PLA’s developing energy strategy both on the mainland and, increasingly on offshore islands at the center... MORE

Southern Gas Corridor Seeks Financial Backing Amidst Volatile Oil Prices
During the third ministerial meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council, held in Baku, on February 23, the European Commission’s vice president for the Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, encouraged international financial institutions to bankroll the SGC project (Trend, February 23). Amidst volatile oil... MORE

Renewable Energy and the PLA’s Next Generation of Self-Sufficiency (Part 1)
This is the first in a two-part series on Chinese energy security and renewable energy. In December 2016, China unveiled one of its most ambitious renewable energy (可再生能源) initiatives thus far with plans to invest over $360 billion as part of the Chinese National Energy... MORE

Ukraine’s Legal Cases Against Russia in International Courts
Ukraine has just concluded its month-long role as rotating president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during February 2017. Kyiv has specifically pledged to use this high-level international forum to confront Moscow for its aggression and to seek reimbursement for the damages Ukraine has... MORE