Is Russia using natural gas as a weapon?
6 countries say Russia no longer sending gas to them
Associated Press
Jan. 6, 2009, 6:33AM
KIEV, Ukraine — Six countries reported a complete shutoff of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.
Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine. Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers and Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only “for a few days.”
The European Union in Brussels called the sudden cutoff to some of its member countries “completely unacceptable.”
In a strongly worded statement, the EU complained that that gas had been cut “without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurances given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities to the European Union.”
Up to Monday, The EU has said that the dispute would not affect end consumers in the coming weeks. The sudden drop over the past day however, increased the diplomatic pressure to find a solution.
Ukraine and Russia are locked in a dispute over pricing and overdue payments, and Russia cut Ukraine off on Jan. 1 but had promised to keep gas moving to Europe.
Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz said Russia’s gas giant Gazprom had sharply reduced its shipments to Europe through pipelines crossing Ukraine, triggering the cuts.
“Our Russian partners are playing cat and mouse with us,” said Oleksandr Shlapak, economic adviser to Ukraine’s president. “These actions today can lead to serious problems not only for the Ukrainian but also for the European gas transport systems.”
But Gazprom’s deputy chairman, Alexander Medvedev, blamed Ukraine’s Naftogaz for the reductions, Russia’s state-owned RIA-Novosti wire service reported. Medvedev was quoted as saying in London that Ukraine had shut three out of four transit gas pipelines this morning, “and the situation is getting worse.”
Naftogaz denied it was to blame for the drop in supplies and that it shut down the three pipelines.
Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said Gazprom itself rerouted gas to just one out of the four, while the other three have no gas.
“We did not turn anything off, there is simply no gas there, there is zero,” Zemlyansky said. “How can we shut anything down if there is physically no gas there.”
Russia had earlier said it was cutting gas to Ukraine by 20 percent, to compensate for what it claimed was diversion of gas by Ukraine.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6196044.html
Associated Press
Jan. 6, 2009, 6:33AM
KIEV, Ukraine — Six countries reported a complete shutoff of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.
Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine. Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers and Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only “for a few days.”
The European Union in Brussels called the sudden cutoff to some of its member countries “completely unacceptable.”
In a strongly worded statement, the EU complained that that gas had been cut “without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurances given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities to the European Union.”
Up to Monday, The EU has said that the dispute would not affect end consumers in the coming weeks. The sudden drop over the past day however, increased the diplomatic pressure to find a solution.
Ukraine and Russia are locked in a dispute over pricing and overdue payments, and Russia cut Ukraine off on Jan. 1 but had promised to keep gas moving to Europe.
Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz said Russia’s gas giant Gazprom had sharply reduced its shipments to Europe through pipelines crossing Ukraine, triggering the cuts.
“Our Russian partners are playing cat and mouse with us,” said Oleksandr Shlapak, economic adviser to Ukraine’s president. “These actions today can lead to serious problems not only for the Ukrainian but also for the European gas transport systems.”
But Gazprom’s deputy chairman, Alexander Medvedev, blamed Ukraine’s Naftogaz for the reductions, Russia’s state-owned RIA-Novosti wire service reported. Medvedev was quoted as saying in London that Ukraine had shut three out of four transit gas pipelines this morning, “and the situation is getting worse.”
Naftogaz denied it was to blame for the drop in supplies and that it shut down the three pipelines.
Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said Gazprom itself rerouted gas to just one out of the four, while the other three have no gas.
“We did not turn anything off, there is simply no gas there, there is zero,” Zemlyansky said. “How can we shut anything down if there is physically no gas there.”
Russia had earlier said it was cutting gas to Ukraine by 20 percent, to compensate for what it claimed was diversion of gas by Ukraine.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6196044.html
Views: 23
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bruce on
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These bullying tactics by Russia in the dead of winter is just another reason we should encourage the export of our h-shale gas to Europe to break the Russians' hold over Europe and to provide a growing demand for LNG which can only help everybody on this site. Lets' hope Dr. Fleming has these ideas and will present them to the energy committees' in Washington. It is a win-win situation for our state, our country and for Europe.
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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on -
We imported 242,416 more million cubic feet than we exported in October 2008.
We need to feed our own needs before we start exporting gas.
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Permalink Reply by Antsu-in-Japan on
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I agree with both Bruce and the Baron. We need to focus on developing the infrastructure that would support our country's use of its own natural resources. Why pay out the nose for something we already have...?
Then we can start focusing on helping to supply natural gas to our allies...and any others who are interested. By the way, I just read that Russia has cut off ALL gas supply to Europe. That should make for a whole lot of COLD, ANGRY people. If I was in that situation, I'd be pressing my government to import from anywhere...except Russia. Tit for tat, I guess you could say!!
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Permalink Reply by Martin on
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Yes they have weaponised the marketing of their natural gas. NPR discussion today on this topic. The Russians had been selling NG at about 1/3 of the European market price until 2006. This was a holdover practice from the days of the USSR as a form of aid and influence over the member republics. In 2006 Gazprom (don't you love those old Socialist names? You expect Joe Stalin to jump up at anytime) announced that they were going to start increasing the sales price over several years until the market value was reached. In practice, the rate of increases have been seriously dependent on how much the customer loved the new Mother Russia. Belarus got a much slower rate of change than say, the Ukraine, which has been flirting with gaining European Union and NATO memberships.
As for selling LNG into Europe -- there are at least two major problems: first there are no LNG terminals in Europe. Second, the NG pipeline distribution system runs East to West. We would have to build new pipeline distribution systems to do this. Also, the we, the USA, don't have any LNG generation and export facilities. Other than that, no problem. Maybe we could convince Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to front the money to do this. Should probably start making money about 5 years after getting financing. Longer to be profitable. Also would need a pot full more of LNG tankers.
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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on
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Martin, sorry to disagree but England, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Belgium all have LNG import terminals . Also, natural gas flows into Europe from essentially every direction (Russia, North Sea, Mediterranean Sea & Atlantic Ocean) so no problem with the pipeline network.
The only issue about US exporting natural gas via LNG is the ability to provide sustained deliverability for 30+ years well in excess of US demand. With current US net imports at almost 8 Bcfd we need to increase production by another 15% just to meet our own needs.
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Permalink Reply by Martin on
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Stand corrected on the question of LNG terminals in Europe, along with the pipeline support. Thanks for the info. However, there is agreement that we do have NG reserves sufficient for twenty plus years of domestic use. It just needs to be brought on line. That's the major effort remains to be done. if the LNG imports keep a cap on domestic NG prices, it will slow the development.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce on
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Les you make many excellent points including we currently import ng. This just makes my argument stronger I think to drill into the shale that we know about here and in the west to end our dependence on imports and what excess production we have can be sold on the world market where prices are much higher than our domestic rates. The higher world price should help to pay the extra drilling costs to get to this shale gas and make our country ng independent. I don't see a downside to exploring at full pace, the world needs it.
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