The Bulgarian government quit a Russian-led pipeline project after a thorough review of key Russian energy projects in the country. Bulgaria is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies and suffered hardship when Moscow cut Europe-bounded gas supplies to Ukraine in January 2009. Sofia has been... MORE

The Caspian nations have reiterated earlier promises to seek a consensus-based settlement, but they apparently failed to resolve their differences. As a result, the Caspian summit previously scheduled in Moscow, tentatively in November this year, appeared to remain elusive.During a meeting in Astana on November... MORE

Following the second phase of auditing Turkmen gas reserves, the British consultancy company Gaffney Cline & Associates (GCA, one of the world leaders in the profession) estimates the reserves in eastern Turkmenistan at just under 20 trillion cubic meters (the figure deemed most likely, within... MORE

The Soviet art of socialist realism used to be defined as “socialist in substance, national in form.” Threats to prevent the construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline by military force are also a form of Kremlin art: bluff in their substance, even if brutal in... MORE

In the first weeks of November 2011, a series of independent events in the diplomatic, economic and security domains highlight how the new Peruvian government of Ollanta Humala is using the previous governments' initiatives to become a key partner for China in Latin America, deepen... MORE

The Izmir agreements on the transit of Azerbaijani gas to Europe through Turkish pipelines (see EDM, November 1) and the BP-proposed South-East European Pipeline for gas (see EDM, November 2) raise some major, as yet unanswered questions. At first sight, they seriously complicate the outlook... MORE

Azerbaijan and the Shah Deniz gas producers’ consortium have just signed bilateral agreements with Turkey on gas transit to Europe (see EDM, November 1). Meanwhile, the Shah Deniz consortium is nearing a final decision to select a pipeline route, out of four options, through Turkey... MORE

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have co-chaired the first meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) in Turkey’s Aegean city of Izmir. The HLSCC, which follows on the partnership model Turkey has been seeking to develop with neighboring... MORE

On October 25 in Izmir, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, witnessed the signing of agreements on the delivery and transit of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey and onward to European Union territory (Trend, Anatolia news agency, Platts Commodity News, October... MORE

The European Commission has pronounced against the Croatian government’s changes to the law on ownership of INA, the Croatian oil and gas company. The changes would have reserved for the government alone the right to own 49 percent or more of INA’s shares. The government’s... MORE