For many years our politicians have spoken confidently of once again becoming energy independent. However reality seems to be gradually creeping into the halls of government. The Assistant Energy Secretary Alexander Karsner recently was quoted that “the places where oil can be found and extracted and brought to bear in the world are decreasing. It [...]

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Preface: The Caspian Sea Summit and the Historical Crossroads of the 21st Century
This article is part of The Sino-Russia Coalition: Challenging America’s Ambitions in Eurasia (September 23, 2007). For editorial reasons the article is being published by Global Research in three parts. It is strongly advised that readers also study the prior piece.
History is in [...]

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VILNIUS (AFP) - Five former communist-bloc countries signed a deal Wednesday to extend an oil pipeline that bypasses Russia, in a move that could diversify supplies and cut Moscow’s energy clout.
The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and host nation Lithuania looked on as government ministers and state oil company bosses inked an accord [...]

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Fears of a new energy crisis in Europe were mounting after Russia threatened to cut gas supplies to Ukraine just two days after an election that could see a pro-Western government formed in Kiev.
The warning, which brought fresh accusations that Russia was using its natural resources to bully its neighbours, raised the prospect of a [...]

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If the flow of Middle East oil to China is squeezed, the Chinese economy will come to a grinding halt. Today China imports 32 percent of its oil needs. This need is expected to double by 2012. Of this oil, 58 percent comes from the Middle East — about 2 million barrels a day. It [...]

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To restrict Iran’s gas exports, Washington could back Russian use of pipelines once meant to cut Moscow’s leverage. But will Turkey go along?
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the U.S. government has had a single policy for getting oil from the rich Caspian Sea basin to market—squeezing it through Turkey without touching [...]

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A closer look at Turkish-Iranian rivalry in Central Asia and the Caucasus and its impact on Russia
While the global news media has given extensive coverage to the geopolitics of energy resources in the former Soviet Empire, little attention has been paid to the competition between Turkey and Iran in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and [...]

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a 2006 press conference with Tony Blair, said the European Union needed to work towards a common energy policy to limit the influence of Gazprom, the Russian-controlled energy giant. Merkel’s statement came after Russia, unhappy with the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, turned off that country’s gas in the middle [...]

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China is making a bid for Central Asia’s energy resources — a move that will ultimately expand into a bid for geopolitical control of the entire region. Russia is waking up to the threat and starting to take countermeasures, setting the stage for a broad Sino-Russian conflict in Central Asia.
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The European Union is looking at measures to prevent foreign investors from snatching up European energy companies. Gazprom has accused Europe of “economic nationalism” and the Kremlin warns it will fight any discrimination against Russian companies. more…

An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Russia’s Very Hostile Takeovers
Brussels Takes On the Big Boys: EU Wants to Break Up [...]

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TEHRAN (Thomson Financial) - Iran’s sacked oil minister has issued a parting warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, predicting a looming ‘catastrophe’ in the Iranian energy sector because of high consumption, media reported Sunday.
‘If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe,’ Kazem [...]

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“The recent economic boom in the Gulf, fueled by higher oil prices, brought its own problems: higher inflation rates, larger income gap between the rich and the poor, more expatriate workers, and traffic congestion. Higher income, growing populations, increased number of expatriates, economic cities, and expansion of petrochemicals have increased the demand for electricity to [...]

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The Baltic states and Poland have in the past harshly criticized Germany for building up exclusive energy ties that sideline smaller countries in Eastern Europe. The center of concern is the German-Russian pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Stretching 750 miles, from Vyborg near St. Petersburg to Greifswald in northeastern Germany, the pipeline is scheduled to [...]

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According to the memorandum of understanding, Iran, home to the second-largest petroleum reserves in the world (after Russia), will provide Turkey with the natural gas to transfer and sell to Europe via the proposed Nabucco pipeline. The proposed pipeline, expected to cost 4.5 billion euro and be 3,300 kilometers long, will be based in Iran, [...]

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From December 2006 to March 2007, Heritage Foundation scholars conducted a computer simula­tion and gaming exercise that examined the likely economic and policy consequences of a major oil disruption in the Persian Gulf. The exercise utilized a realistic scenario, state-of-the-art macroeconomic modeling, and a knowledgeable team of subject-matter experts from government, business, aca­demia, and research [...]

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In today’s world, decisions on energy are made not only on economic terms but, unfortunately, geopolitics also plays a major role. In this sense, Turkey’s agreement with Iran to transport some 30 billion cubic metres of Iranian and Turkmen natural gas westward to Europe, while it makes good business sense for Turkey, Iran and the [...]

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Since the close of the cold war, we have been growing used to threats such as terrorism where the enemy has no state or territory. But soon we will have to get used to new strategic challenges, such as energy security, where fossil fuels will be used as weapons to achieve political ends. Energy security [...]

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Amid the looming Turkish failure to preserve the secular nature of its democracy, the growing Russian regional energy dominance and recent agreements to extend a natural gas pipeline from Iran to India, it seems like global diplomacy is becoming more dictated by increased demand for cheap and efficient energy.
Energy setting the pace is bad news [...]

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June 6 (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he plans to expand energy and military cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to counter U.S. power in Latin America.
“We hope Russia will have a greater presence in Venezuela and Latin America with every passing day,” Chavez said today in a televised news conference in [...]

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Oil, gas – and the Great Game revived
The May summit between the European Union and Russia ran aground on the issue of energy cooperation: the EU imports a quarter of its oil and gas from Russia and is concerned at Moscow’s growing political influence in the region. The agreement signed on 12 May by President [...]

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How the aggressive behavior of the world’s second largest exporter could drive prices higher for everyone.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Russia is again flexing its energy muscle.
On Friday, reports said Russia may cancel a contract it has with BP to develop a huge natural gas field in the middle of the country, claiming BP wasn’t producing [...]

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