On October 16 in Moscow, Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, witnessed the signing of an agreement whereby Russia’s Rosneft takes over Petroleos de Venezuela’s (PDVSA) massive refining capacities in Germany. With this, Rosneft is acquiring 10 percent of the total... MORE

On October 14, Hungary and Romania inaugurated a gas pipeline connecting the two countries’ transmission systems. The Szeged (Hungary) – Arad (Romania) pipeline is the first in a series of interconnector projects supported by the EU in Central and Southeastern Europe. The EU’s Energy Commissioner,... MORE

On October 13 in Bucharest, Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller held talks with Prime Minister Emil Boc, Economics Minister Ion Ariton, and other officials, on Romania’s possible participation in Gazprom projects. Adriean Videanu, economics minister until six weeks ago and (unusually in Romania) an active proponent... MORE

Russia has sought to expand its trade with China in an apparent bid to prop up what was officially denoted as the strategic partnership between the two nations. Meanwhile, as bilateral trade recovered, China has regained a surplus in its trade with Russia. The official... MORE

On October 7 in Baku, BP signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) for the exploration and development of the Shafag and Asiman gas blocks in Azerbaijan’s Caspian offshore sector. The new CEO of BP, Robert Dudley, witnessed the signing during... MORE

In China’s quest to secure raw materials, resources and markets, Beijing has laid out a sophisticated blueprint to develop a region-wide transit corridor throughout the subcontinent. In the Himalayas, it has built rail, road and air networks that can support the Chinese military’s logistic supply... MORE

Croatia expects to join the European Union as a full member by 2012 or 2013, but has yet to adapt its energy market to EU norms, particularly in the gas sector. That sector continues to be handicapped in Croatia by elements from a socialist legacy.... MORE

Moscow is exploiting a number of Polish vulnerabilities of both the objective and the subjective variety, all short-term, in the negotiations on a new supply agreement. The proposed draft would perpetuate those vulnerabilities, and cause Polish long-term dependence on Gazprom. For the time being, Poland... MORE

In the last couple of years, Russia has engaged in a rapprochement policy with Poland preceding the death of Poland’s President, Lech Kaczynski and many leading members of the government in a fatal air crash on April 10, outside Smolensk,. However, this policy certainly received... MORE

Poland consumes some 14.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually (unaffected by the economic recession elsewhere). The country produces some 4.3 bcm per year internally while importing the remainder from Gazprom (Bloomberg, September 18). Most of Gazprom’s deliveries enter Poland through the Yamal-Europe pipeline,... MORE