ISSUE # 07
03/04/2013
The EU-Ukraine summit was held in Brussels on 25 February 2013. In the course of the meeting the sides discussed the prospects for signing the association agreement at the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius in November. READ MORE

• March 6, 2013

Ukraine, which is trying to reduce its dependence on Russian gas supplies, may receive gas from Europe via Slovakia, the European Commissioner for Energy was quoted as saying.

• March 5, 2013

While the western media remains largely fixated on the existential Iran nuclear threat and the gory slow-motion Syrian civil war, other momentous events are occurring in the world’s most volatile region, with potentially enormous consequences for the west’s addiction to Middle Eastern oil. One of the most brutal Middle East insurgencies, largely overlooked by the Western media, involved Turkey and the Marxist Kurdish separatist Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK).

• March 5, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych are meeting in Moscow on March 4, with energy cooperation issues high on the agenda.

• March 5, 2013

Russia and Georgia have met for reconciliation talks in Prague to bring the two countries in the wake of the 2008 August war.

• March 4, 2013

The U.N. nuclear watchdog raised pressure on Iran to finally address suspicions that it has sought to design an atomic bomb, calling for swift inspector access to a military base where relevant explosives tests are believed to have been carried out.

• March 4, 2013

The US media has warned that the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline might lead to sanctions against Islamabad, although the State Department says sanctions will only become effective if Pakistan finalises the deal.

• March 4, 2013

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 Gazprom expects gas prices for its European exports to fall by an average of 14 percent in 2013, as it prepares to grant $4.7bn in price discounts over the next year.
• Ukrainian wholesale gas importer Naftogaz refuses to pay a $7bn bill from Gazprom for unused gas in 2012, and challenges the take or pay terms of the Naftogaz-Gazprom contract.
• Nord Stream AG receives a construction permit for the pipeline’s final onshore German section, although plans for Nord Stream’s expansion are already facing delays.
• Gazprom increases its estimates of the cost of South Stream, with plans for extra investment in the pipeline’s onshore Russian section.
• Gazprom takes a final investment decision on its Vladivostok LNG terminal, with the Asia-Pacific region being the target market, while yet another meeting with China’s CNPC concludes without the announcement of concrete progress towards finalising Russian gas supplies to China.
• Gazprom’s export monopoly comes under further pressure, as Rosneft President, Igor Sechin, calls for the liberalisation of Russia’s gas exports.
• Celebrations of Gazprom’s 20th anniversary are overshadowed by the passing of its former-Chairman, Rem Vyakhirev.

• March 4, 2013