It can take Moscow residents two hours in dense traffic to drive the first 10 miles on the highway to St. Petersburg, in the direction of their country cottages surrounded Continue Reading
It can take Moscow residents two hours in dense traffic to drive the first 10 miles on the highway to St. Petersburg, in the direction of their country cottages surrounded Continue Reading
The U.S. has no information to suggest that a reported Russian oil-for-goods deal is being completed, but has expressed concerns about a move that could lead to fresh U.S. sanctions, a senior official said late Friday. "We do not have any information to suggest this deal has been culminated," the senior U.S. official said in a teleconference ahead of the resumption of international talks on Iran’s nuclear program. "We have been very clear about our concerns with both parties regarding this or any similar deal." Reuters reported earlier this week that Iran and Russia were working to seal a $20 billion oil-for-goods deal in which Russia will receive oil in exchange for Russian goods and equipment. "If such a deal were to happen, it appears it would be inconsistent with" last November’s interim nuclear deal "and could potentially trigger U.S. sanctions against the entity and individuals involved in any […]
Russian energy company Gazprom said Wednesday its chief executive, Alexei Miller , went to Brussels to discuss his commitments to the European energy sector. Miller met in Brussels with European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Gazprom in a statement said both sides discussed a "wide range" of bilateral issues. "The parties confirmed their interest in maintaining the mutually beneficial relationship built over the decades of successful collaboration," the Russian company said in a statement . There was no public statement from Oettinger or the German foreign minister on the meeting with Miller. European leaders have tried to add a layer of diversity to a natural gas market that’s dependent on Russia. Ukraine’s role as a transit nation for Russian gas has added to concerns about European energy security. European officials have looked to supplies from gas-rich Azerbaijan as a […]
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Tuesday sharply hiked the price for natural gas to Ukraine and threatened to reclaim billions previous discounts, raising the heat on its cash-strapped government, while Ukrainian police moved to disarm members of a radical nationalist group after a shooting spree in the capital. Alexei Miller, the head of Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant, said Tuesday that the company has withdrawn December’s discount that put the price of gas at $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters and set the price at $385.50 per 1,000 cubic meters for the second quarter. The discount was part of a financial lifeline which Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to Ukraine’s President, Viktor Yanukovych, after his decision to ditch a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow. The move fueled three months of protests which led Yanukovych to flee to Russia in February. Radical nationalist […]
One of the companies most entwined in the natural gas business in Europe is the Italian oil giant ENI – and that has put it smack in the middle of the crisis between Russia and western nations. ENI is the biggest seller of natural gas in Europe, providing 22 percent of the market. It is also the biggest customer of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, worth about 10 billion euros a year, and it might join with Gazprom to build a new pipeline under the Black Sea. It has a deal with Russia’s biggest oil company, Rosneft, to explore in the Barents Sea. It also has rights to look for shale gas in Ukraine and plans to propose reworking some old neglected oil and gas fields there to boost output. And it is the largest natural gas producer in Libya, a key source of natural gas for Europe. Altogether, […]
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said there was "no sensible alternative" to Russian natural gas imports and it was unlikely Russia would stop deliveries because of the crisis over Ukraine, a German daily reported Friday. "Even in the darkest hours of the Cold War, Russia respected its contracts," the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung reported Gabriel, who is also energy minister and vice chancellor, as telling an energy forum. Europe’s biggest economy is heavily reliant on Russian gas, which accounted for about a third of its gas imports last year, BDEW figures show. Germany’s top utilities E.ON and RWE receive most of their gas from Russia’s state-controlled gas producer Gazprom. Russia’s seizure of the Crimea region and its threat to cut off gas to Ukraine, a transit route to the rest of Europe, has prompted European leaders to consider strategies to curb the bloc’s energy reliance on Russia. Gabriel also said that two current business deals with Russia by German companies BASF and RWE were "company decisions" and "essentially unproblematic," according to the newspaper. The newspaper said Gabriel also told the forum that Europe’s […]
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said there was "no sensible alternative" to Russian natural gas imports and it was unlikely Russia would stop deliveries because of the crisis over Ukraine, a German daily reported Friday. "Even in the darkest hours of the Cold War, Russia respected its contracts," the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung reported Gabriel, who is also energy minister and vice chancellor, as telling an energy forum. Europe’s biggest economy is heavily reliant on Russian gas, which accounted for about a third of its gas imports last year, BDEW figures show. Germany’s top utilities E.ON and RWE receive most of their gas from Russia’s state-controlled gas producer Gazprom. Russia’s seizure of the Crimea region and its threat to cut off gas to Ukraine, a transit route to the rest of Europe, has prompted European leaders to consider strategies to curb the bloc’s energy reliance on Russia. Gabriel also said that two current business deals with Russia by German companies BASF and RWE were "company decisions" and "essentially unproblematic," according to the newspaper. The newspaper said Gabriel also told the forum that Europe’s […]
The U.S. is looking to minimize the global harm from further penalties on Russia over Ukraine , as the International Monetary Fund moves forward with a multibillion-dollar lifeline to the government in Kiev. President Barack Obama said that Russia’s military, energy and finance industries are possible targets if it moves deeper in Ukraine. While additional sanctions would inevitably also affect the economies of the U.S. and Europe, Obama said, the goal is to limit the collateral damage. “Hopefully, we can design sanctions that minimize the impact on U.S. companies or Italian companies, and maximize the impact on the narrow set of interests in Russia that help drive the decisions that they’re making,” he said yesterday at a news conference in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Obama spoke hours after the IMF unveiled a preliminary accord with Ukraine for a two-year loan of $14 billion to $18 billion […]
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia reached out to President Obama on Friday to discuss ideas about how to peacefully resolve the international standoff over Ukraine, a surprise move by Moscow to pull back from the brink of an escalated confrontation that has put Europe and much of the world on edge. After weeks of provocative moves punctuated by a menacing buildup of troops on Ukraine’s border, Mr. Putin’s unexpected telephone call to Mr. Obama offered a hint of a possible settlement. The two leaders agreed to have their top diplomats meet to discuss concrete proposals for defusing the crisis that has generated the most serious clash between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. But it remained uncertain whether Mr. Putin was seriously interested in a resolution that would go far enough to satisfy the United States, Ukraine and Europe, or instead […]
