A Snapshot of Key Developments in the External Relations of the Russian Gas Sector
By Jack Sharples, EGF Associate Researcher on the external dimensions of Russian gas

Key points:

• Gazprom announces an agreement with Poland’s PGNiG to adjust gas prices and signs an asset-swap deal with BASFT Wintershall, but remains under pressure in Europe due to falling export volumes and the EU antimonopoly investigation
• Ukraine continues to press for reduced imports of Russian gas and receives first deliveries from RWE
• Gazprom appears set to expand its underground gas storage facilities and gas transmission capacity in Belarus
• Slovenia and Bulgaria confirm their final investment decisions for the South Stream project, as Gazprom’s partners also take the final investment decision on the offshore section, while Gazprom signs a new gas supply contract with Bulgargaz
• Turkish regulators approve Gazprom’s new long-term supply contracts with private Turkish energy companies
• Gazprom demonstrates the potential for shipping LNG from Europe to Japan as it charters the first LNG supertanker to traverse the Arctic during winter
• Novatek acquires 49 percent of Northgas, with Gazprom retaining its 51 percent stake in the company

• December 4, 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin had talks in İstanbul on Friday, mainly focusing on the blossoming trade relationship during a one-day trip of the Russian president.

• December 3, 2012

Russia is not delivering "destabilizing weapons" to Syria, even though there was no UN embargo in place, said the head of Russia's Presidential Administration on Friday.

• December 1, 2012

North Korea is to carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 as its youthful leader Kim Jong-un flexes his muscles a year after his father's death, in a move that will likely heighten diplomatic tensions and draw criticism from Washington.

• December 1, 2012

Russian-Iranian consultations on the Caspian Sea problems were held at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Nov. 29, the ministry's website reported. The Russian delegation was headed by the Special Representative of the Russian Federation's President, Ambassador-at-Large Igor Bratchikov, while the Iranian delegation was led by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh.

• November 30, 2012

Turkey will press Russian President Vladimir Putin next week to cooperate in engineering as rapid an end as possible to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule and try to assuage his fears Moscow could lose out after Assad's departure.

• November 30, 2012

ISSUE #46
11/26/2012
The EU-Ukraine association agreement may be signed in 2012, the head of the EU delegation to Ukraine, Jan Tombinski, said on 21 November 2012. He added that his optimism does not mean that the EU called off its previous conditions to Ukraine: "The signing was stopped due to the issues concerning selective justice, incomplete judicial reform and our doubts about the recently held election". READ MORE

• November 29, 2012

Kyrgyzstan and Russia will sign five cooperation agreements, including memorandum on opening of a Russian bank in Kyrgyzstan.

• November 28, 2012