But the real worry for Europe is a different one. It gets a quarter of its gas from Russia and the proportion is set to rise sharply. The Kremlin uses its monopoly of east-west gas pipelines, and offers of lucrative bilateral gas deals, to interfere in Europe’s energy business. It relies on friends like Germany [...]

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The agreements signed on January 18 in Sofia in President Vladimir Putin’s presence pave the way for Bulgaria’s inclusion in Russia’s expanding energy networks. From President Giorgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev on down, Bulgarian officials are hailing this set of agreements as the only available strategic option for their country. This assessment amounts [...]

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Iran is prepared to supply gas to the EU’s flagpship Nabucco gas pipeline, which is aimed at reducing the bloc’s reliance on Russia, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Tuesday.
“The EU has already pointed out the need to diversify its gas supplies. One of the areas in which Iran can cooperate with Europe in the [...]

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Through the Nabucco pipeline project, Bulgaria decides to reap the benefit of Europe’s energy demand.
The fat lady has finally sung — the operatically named Nabucco gas pipeline project, intended to carry Central Asian gas to European markets, avoiding Russia, appears to have been knocked out by an agreement between Bulgaria, Russia, and Italy’s ENI.
Negotiated on [...]

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Uncertain central Asian gas supplies have emerged as the largest threat to an EU scheme to provide an alternative to Russian gas following a month-long stand-off between Turkmenistan and Iran, analysts say.
The Nabucco gas pipeline project is designed to diversify the European Union’s supplies but ironically places the bloc’s energy security in the hands of [...]

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For Iranian consumers, Turkmenistan’s halting of natural gas deliveries to the Islamic republic on Dec. 31 has represented a bitter New Year’s present, as the country endures its hardest winter in a decade. The weather has caused 21 deaths, and Iran’s northern regions are covered with nearly 2 feet of snow.
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Turkmenistan’s “pipeline politics” had [...]

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Bolivian President Evo Morales faces an uphill battle to keep his nation whole as several eastern provinces, which hold the country’s lucrative gas reserves, are balking at his constitutional reform proposals. Among the proposals being put forward by Morales — Bolivia’s first indigenous leader — is a more equal distribution of the country’s revenue [...]

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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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Russia, Tony Blair pointed out last week, is “prepared to use [its] energy resources as an instrument of policy”. But the West is unprepared to use its financial and technical resources in the same way. That failure, warns Blair as he heads off into the sunset, “could be as crucial to our country’s [and, I [...]

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Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela, and other members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (G.E.C.F.) met in Doha on April 9 amidst Western fears that Moscow may encourage the birth of a “gas O.P.E.C.” Western decision-makers fear that such a new organization could give producers of natural gas an advantage over consumers.
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In a move that raised more questions than it answered, the world’s leading natural gas producers agreed April 9 to form a committee to explore collaborative efforts (FT) at price controls. Officials from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) member states denied any intent to form a “cartel,” but the distinction is semantic—under any label, [...]

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A bid by natural gas-producing nations for an OPEC-style alliance could actually undermine prices for exporters. Why? Oversupply and easy alternatives.
To anyone who recalls OPEC’s rise to global economic importance in the 1970s, the prospect of a similar cartel among natural gas exporters has become a cause for concern.
An oil embargo by the Organization [...]

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Qatar is to launch the first market for trade in liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid fears that the world’s gas-exporting countries are forging closer links that could lead to the formation of a gas cartel.
The Gulf emirate is seeking to capture global trade in the world’s fastest-growing energy commodity with the creation of an LNG [...]

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New York, April 8. (PTI): The world’s largest natural gas producers are expected to announce the formation of a cartel at Doha, Qatar, next week but experts in the United States expect no “significant impact” on prices or production, a media report said.
Fourteen gas-rich nations are attending the meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum [...]

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A senior Japanese politician has likened China’s development of gas fields in disputed waters to theft, in remarks likely to strain bilateral ties just days before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, flies to Tokyo for fence-mending talks with the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Shoichi Nakagawa, the Liberal Democratic party’s policy chief and a close ally [...]

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Moscow’s growing attention to the Middle East continues, part of a new global strategy espoused by a more assertive and ambitious Russia. President Vladimir Putin pays much more attention to the region than his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, ever did. In the last two years, he has paid a historic first visit to Israel, visited oil- [...]

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With common trepidation substituting for a common policy, the West is awaiting the Gas-Exporting Countries’ Forum (GECF) meeting on April 9 in Doha, Qatar. It will be the group’s sixth meeting in almost as many years, but it is the first meeting that might result in a momentous decision to create a cartel-type organization that [...]

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BRUSSELS, March 8 (Itar-Tass) - Poland is seeking a European Union pipeline bypassing Russia through Central Asia to the eastern border of the EU.
Warsaw also wants EU issuing funds for this project known as Nobuko, a EU representative told ITAR-TASS.
According to information available here, Poland is going to obtain from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan [...]

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STOCKHOLM/VILNIUS – Lithuania and Sweden said on Monday they wanted the planners of a Baltic Sea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany to look at alternative routes to address their concerns about the environment and security.
The five billion euro ($6.57 billion) pipeline, planned to run from Vyborg in Russia under the sea 1,200 km to [...]

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In addition, you were offered the opportunity to suggest other threats that you perceive as more dangerous. That opened up a floodgate of write-ins… but one in particular was cited constantly, so much so that it made its way up to the number two spot in our final results. As a result, I’m providing the [...]

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