Latest Articles about Energy
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Four-Day Karabakh War Highlights Threats to Energy Security on NATO’s Southeastern Flank
The periodic escalation of violence in and around the separatist Azerbaijani territory of Karabakh routinely raises concerns about this conflict’s threat to regional energy security and pipeline infrastructure. However, few commentaries analyze this issue’s broader geopolitical implications in any detail. The intense fighting between the... MORE
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Natural Gas Routinely Embezzled in Dagestan, Former Official Alleges
At the start of May, an unusual trial concluded in Dagestan. Regional authorities charged the republic’s former deputy prime minister, Magomedgusen Nasrutdinov, with fraud and sentenced him to five years in prison and a hefty fine. Investigators said he had unlawfully privatized one million meters... MORE
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Moscow’s Appointment in Doha Goes Awry
Russian talks with Gulf states, in Doha, Qatar, aimed at freezing oil production and thereby raising prices, broke down on April 17 (RT, April 17). This failure to reach an agreement represents a major setback for Russia’s economy as well as its domestic and foreign... MORE
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Russia Alters Geopolitical Balance in South Caucasus With New Energy Project
On April 13, the energy ministers of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran met in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, where they agreed to create a single, common electricity market among these countries. For this purpose, bilateral Russia-Georgia, Armenia-Georgia, and Armenia-Iran projects are being planned to... MORE
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Moscow Plays the Arctic Card in Its Asian Policy
Since 2007, two of Moscow’s priority foreign policy initiatives have been its pivot to Asia and efforts to secure recognition of its Arctic claims while opening the Russian High North up to large-scale development. In both cases—in the Arctic or the Russian Far East—Moscow can... MORE
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Gas-Rich Turkmenistan Looks to Export Diversification
In January 2016, the Russian media reported that Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom, had discontinued all purchases of natural gas from Turkmenistan and was not planning to resume imports any time soon. This information was later confirmed in a company statement released in mid-March, containing some... MORE
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A Comeback for South Stream?
When Moscow abruptly terminated the South Stream natural gas pipeline project in December 2014 (see EDM, December 17, 2014), that decision left all of Russia’s potential partners in the Balkans in the lurch. They had all made commitments to Russia and South Stream and, in... MORE
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Turkmenistan Tightens Its Regime Ahead of Difficult Times
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has repeatedly reshuffled his government over the last several weeks. At a meeting of the State Security Council, in early March, he relieved from their positions the head of the security services, Lieutenant General Guychgeldy Hodzhaberdyev, and the long-serving commander... MORE
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Chechnya’s Planned New Oil Refinery Marks a Victory Over Rosneft
Many analysts say the two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s were caused by the republic’s oil. These analysts, however, have tended to overlook the fact that Chechnya no longer had prospects as an oil extracting region by the time the wars started. Chechnya’s oil... MORE
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Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector: South Stream’s Latest Avatar? (Part Three)
*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. The Interconnector Turkey–Greece–Italy (ITGI-Poseidon) was one of several rival projects competing to launch the European Union–backed Southern Gas Corridor to Europe with Azerbaijani natural gas. The ITGI was the weakest contestant... MORE