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Russia building nuclear reactors – and influence – around the globe

Tags: energy | european union | jordan | nuclear energy | nuclear reactor | rosatom | | vladimir putin Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd L), his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (2nd R) and Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) meet onboard a guided missile cruiser at the port of Sochi, August 12, 2014. REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin Russia has been notoriously brazen in using state-owned companies as instruments of national power. President Vladimir Putin’s natural-gas wars with Belarus and Ukraine made headlines and sometimes left substantial parts of Europe in the cold . But Moscow’s exploits in other energy-related areas have been less noticed. Recent revelations about the concerted Russian effort to buy up uranium resources across the globe may change that. For Moscow’s state-owned nuclear-energy company, Rosatom, has made successful inroads into markets around the world. It is Rosatom — not France’s Areva or the United States’ Westinghouse […]

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Gazprom Profits Plunge on Ruble Weakness and Ukraine Crisis –Update

By Thomas Grove and Andrey Ostroukh MOSCOW–Russia’s gas giant OAO Gazprom said Wednesday its 2014 net profit plunged 980.26 billion ruble ($19 billion) on year to 159 billion ruble due to weakness in the Russian currency and instability in Ukraine. Gazprom, facing tougher conditions in its biggest market Europe, saw its sales to the continent fall to 159.4 billion cubic meters from 174.0 bcm a year ago. Russia’s ruble plummeted last year, losing around half of its value against the dollar, due to lower oil prices and a crisis of confidence in the currency following Western sanctions on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. The weaker ruble also pushed Gazprom’s net debt higher by 48% to 1.65 trillion rubles. The company said it suffered a 34 billion ruble loss on its balance sheet due to a dispute with Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz. Gazprom has been in arguing with […]

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Russian envoy says politics behind Gazprom charges

Russian envoy to the European Union suspects politics at play in latest dispute over regional natural gas market. (UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov) BRUSSELS, April 27 (UPI) — Charges against Russian energy company Gazprom stem from Lithuania’s government, not energy companies, a Russian envoy told a European news outlet. The European Commission last week said it suspected Gazprom was violating antitrust rules by abusing its position in the Central and Eastern European markets. The European commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said Gazprom was preventing gas from flowing from "certain Central Eastern European countries" and thereby prohibiting competition. Russian Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told European news service EurActiv the charges stem from the Lithuanian government . "What puzzled me from the beginning was that the whole case was initiated not by some economic entities, not by EU-based energy companies which could have theoretically complained about those contracts, […]

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Russia eyes Argentinian energy role

President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on hand for signing of memorandum of cooperation with Russian energy company Gazprom on April 23, 2015. Photo by UPI/Andrew Harrer. MOSCOW, April 24 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom said it signed a memorandum of cooperation in Moscow to work alongside its counterparts on Argentina. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner met in Moscow with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss bilateral relations . Gazprom said its management team signed the memorandum with Argentinian energy company YPF on the sidelines of the meeting. Russia expressed interest in Argentina’s energy market in 2012 following the nationalization of YPF. The following year, Gazprom won a tender to supply Argentina with 15 shipments of liquefied natural gas with a total of 1 million tons through 2015. In the Latin American market, both sides have focused on development the Vaca Muerta shale site in […]

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Lavrov: Charges against Gazprom are baseless

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says charges that Russian energy company Gazprom abused its market position in Eastern and Central Europe are without merit. File Photo by UPI/Maryam Rahmanian. MOSCOW, April 23 (UPI) — Charges from the European Commission that energy company Gazprom abused its market position are "absolutely inadmissible," Russia’s foreign minister said. Markets rules in the Europe discourage energy companies from controlling both transit arteries and the reserves they carry. Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner in charge of competition policy, said Gazprom was "abusing its dominant position" in the European market. Gazprom in a Wednesday statement said the charges are baseless , adding it "strictly" follows the rules of the countries in which it operates. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin was confident both sides could resolve the issue, but noted the government would work in defense of Gazprom’s interests . "The argument is simple: […]

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EU charges Russia’s Gazprom, alleging price gouging

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union launched a legal attack on Gazprom on Wednesday, stoking tension with Moscow as it accused the Russian gas giant of overcharging buyers in Eastern Europe and hindering competition. The Kremlin appeared to take a conciliatory tone, saying it hoped for compromise and an impartial stance from EU regulators. The EU’s new antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, who a week ago announced a similar market abuse prosecution against U.S. tech giant Google, said state-controlled Gazprom was using its continued dominance in Moscow’s old Soviet client states to hike prices by as much as 40 percent over the norm. It could do so, she said, by insisting on contracts that bar customers selling on gas to others, notably across borders, which she described as a hindrance of free markets that broke EU law. It has also been an obstacle to EU efforts to supply Ukraine. Another […]

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Russian oil company irked by arctic rules

Russian state oil company Rosneft said private companies are getting more support from the government when considering frontier arctic territory. File Photo by Denis Larkin/Shutterstock. MOSCOW, April 22 (UPI) — Private company interests are favored over those of state entities when considering access to frontier arctic territory, Russian oil company Rosneft said. State-owned Rosneft said it was frustrated that private companies were getting more government support for developing arctic reserves than those controlled by the government itself. "The existing system protects the interests of the state when developing the Arctic shelf and set clear rules of providing access to private partners both Russia and foreign ones," the company said Wednesday. U.S. energy company Exxon Mobil has a partnership with Russian oil company Rosneft for work in the arctic waters of Russia . With Western sanctions impeding developments, the Russian government has placed a greater emphasis on domestic exploitation of […]

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EU Files Formal Charges Against Gazprom for Abuse of Dominant Position

ENLARGE BRUSSELS—The European Union accused Russia’s state-controlled gas company OAO Gazprom of hindering competition and charging unfair prices in Central and Eastern Europe, a move that could constrain Moscow’s ability to wield power in its former backyard. The charges, which escalate a 2½-year investigation , come only a week after the EU waded into another politically sensitive antitrust battle with the U.S. search engine Google Inc. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy. They open up the possibility of multibillion-dollar fines for Gazprom and injunctions that could have far-reaching consequences for a company already struggling with low oil prices and EU moves to diversify the bloc’s gas supply. The accusations also attack the way the company has tied its gas deals to broader strategic goals defined by Moscow. “From now on it will be more difficult for the Kremlin to use Gazprom as a tool of […]

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Gazprom Faces Effects of Politics on Its Bottom Line

Photo The Gaz-System distribution station in Gustorzyn, Poland. Poland and some other European countries are largely dependent on Russian gas. Credit Agencja Gazeta/Reuters MOSCOW — European antitrust regulators are striking at Gazprom ’s core, going after the Russian energy giant’s pricing policies and its politically hued control over natural gas pipelines. But market forces, more than regulatory pressures, are stacking up against the company, as it struggles to maintain its earnings power and geopolitical heft. Long used by President Vladimir V. Putin to further Russia’s economic and political interests, Gazprom has used its muscle to dictate prices and set terms for natural gas supplies across Europe. This worked for years because customers had few other options. But politics, Gazprom is quickly realizing, are not always good for profits. Those same policies are making it difficult to maneuver, as Gazprom finds itself competing against a wide array of ever more […]

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Gazprom CEO Offers Greece a Gas Pipeline but Little Else

The chief executive of Russian state-owned OAO Gazprom pushed a plan Tuesday to sell its natural gas to the European Union via Greece, but made no public offers of immediate sweeteners during a visit to cash-strapped Athens. OAO Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement that the company could guarantee annual shipments of 47 billion cubic meters of gas via Greece. He said Greece could raise commercial loans against the guaranteed deliveries. Greece, which is in difficult talks with European leaders over much-needed financing, is hoping for an economic boost from Russia, such as cheaper natural gas supplies or an exemption from Moscow’s ban on European food imports. But there have been no major agreements despite a two-day trip by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Moscow earlier this month, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized the EU’s sanctions policy against Russia over the Ukrainian […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple