On September 19, in Baku, nine European energy companies signed contracts to purchase Azerbaijani natural gas from the Shah Deniz field, Phase Two of production.All nine contracts cover a period of 25 years, starting with the first gas flow into Europe from the Azerbaijani-led Trans-Anatolia... MORE

The international consortium developing Kazakhstan’s super-giant offshore oilfield Kashagan is now on course to start commercial production by October 1, the final deadline set by Kazakhstan’s government. Meeting that deadline will enable the consortium to avoid financial penalties that the government could have imposed in... MORE

China is doubling down on its hydrocarbon resource development in the East China Sea. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) wants to double overall oil and gas production to 100 million metric tons per year by 2020 (Petroleum Economist, October 2012). CNOOC’s first licensing... MORE

Lithuania’s National Energy Independence Strategy, passed by the country’s parliament in June 2012, aims to ensure Lithuania’s energy independence before 2020 by strengthening the country’s energy security and, by extension, its economic competitiveness (https://www.enmin.lt/lt/activity/veiklos_kryptys/strateginis_planavimas_ir_ES/Energy_independence_strategy0919.pdf). Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which it... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Azerbaijan on August 13 (see EDM, April 14) resulted in several agreements of unprecedented scope in the oil and gas sector. Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Putin witnessed the agreements’ signing. These are documents of general intent, merely sketched... MORE

The European Commission encourages Slovakia to emulate Hungary and Poland transiting natural gas supplies from Western Europe to Ukraine. Such deliveries involve re-exporting gas volumes and reverse-using transit systems. Following German RWE Supply & Trading, some other European companies may well also consider selling gas... MORE

To reduce its dependence on Gazprom’s supply monopoly, Ukraine has recently initiated the procurement of natural gas from European gas-trading companies. RWE (Rheinisch-Westfaelisches Elektrizitaetswerk, Germany’s second-largest energy conglomerate) has become the first major European company to deliver gas to Ukraine (see EDM, April 1).The European... MORE

It used to be said in the region that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are one nation that speaks different languages. However, over the past several years, animosity between the two has been growing.To an outsider, the grievances of either government directed against the other sound reasonable.... MORE

The demise of the Nabucco-West gas pipeline project leaves Romania and Hungary dependent on Russian gas imports, and scrambling for diversification solutions that variously look sub-optimal or doubtful. Conversely, the go-ahead to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project inspires some hopes for trickle-down supplies of natural... MORE

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project consortium is being thoroughly reconfigured, reflecting the producers’ and shippers’ options for marketing Azerbaijani natural gas in Europe.On July 30, Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR), BP (formerly British Petroleum), and Total of France—gas producers at Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan—entered the... MORE