Tag: Gas

Jason Anderson, the head of WWF's EU climate and energy policy, explains why binding targets and a backloading of carbon credits are needed to decarbonise Europe's economy by 2050.

Moscow, which recently slammed Kyiv with a huge gas bill, said Monday (4 February) that an arrangement could be found. A Russian diplomat explained that the deal would not necessarily require Ukraine to join Moscow's proposed Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan. 

Ukraine and Russia are embroiled in a new gas dispute after Moscow sent Kyiv a huge bill for gas it commissioned under long-term contracts but did not use. Asked by EurActiv if there was a risk of a repeat of the 2009 gas crisis, the European Commission said it expected both sides to make sure that shipments to the EU remain uninterrupted.

Cyprus' economic adjustment programme and banking sector reforms should be seen as a catalyst that will reinforce macroeconomic and financial stability in the country. Over the longer term, the exploitation of natural gas discoveries should substantially boost growth prospects and help lower debt, writes Stavros Papagianneas.

Ukraine's president pulled out of gas price talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the last minute on Tuesday (18 December), raising concern about the reliability of supplies to Europe before a Russia-EU summit.

The simple expectation from the Ukrainian authorities that the EU won't let Ukraine transformation into a new Belarus allows the current Ukrainian administration to manipulate the position of official Brussels in favour of itself, says Viktor Tkachuk.

A new corporate coalition which says it will advance a low-carbon energy policy for Europe launched in Brussels last week.

Gazprom has expressed the strongest interest of all prospective bidders eyeing the privatisation of Greek gas firm Depa, two Greek energy sources said yesterday (23 October). The deal could undermine EU efforts to reduce Russian involvement in Europe's energy markets.

Lithuanian representatives have denied trying to win votes in a forthcoming election by filing a €1.45 billion complaint against Gazprom with a Stockholm arbitration court.

Turkish Cypriot leader Derviş Eroğlu said yesterday (25 September) he would present a new plan to the UN secretary-general for gas explorations surrounding the divided island, resources that could change its economic landscape.

EU countries are urged to speed up the connections of their gas and electricity grids, according to a draft European Commission report on investment in energy infrastructure, seen by EurActiv.

The European Commission is investigating the Russian energy giant Gazprom for allegedly hindering competition in Central and Eastern European gas markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules. 

Ukraine has selected ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to develop its Skifska hydrocarbon field in the Black Sea, choosing the American and Dutch companies over Russia's Lukoil for the €8.15-billion project. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to lower the price of gas for Ukraine yesterday (12 July) during his first visit to the former Soviet republic since returning to the Kremlin in May, a meeting which Kyiv had hoped would resolve the energy stalemate.

Russia insists on sticking to its current gas supply agreement with Ukraine despite repeated calls from Kyiv to renegotiate the deal, the head of Russia’s Gazprom says.

The Cyprus EU presidency in the second half of 2012 will provide political leadership to the Union but “not in the traditional way”, officials say. Rather, it will be a “Brussels-based presidency”, with most of the country's officials operating from the European capital and focusing on EU affairs. Meanwhile, the island's long-standing reunification talks with Turkey will be dealt with on a separate track.

An energy strategy without fossil fuels would be preferable to the regulated gas pathway outlined in the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s new report, the paper’s own author told EurActiv in an exclusive interview yesterday (30 May).

UK oil major BP said it was no longer considering shipping gas from its Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan through the Nabucco pipeline, dealing a blow to the troubled European project. But the European Commission said the “full-scale version” of Nabucco was still the main option under consideration.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said his country was “taken hostage” over the case of his imprisoned predecessor, Yulia Tymoshenko, which he said was overblown because of a “foreign plot” to prevent the country from getting closer to the EU.

The EU-favoured Nabucco natural gas pipeline is "in trouble," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in calling for support of its competitor, Russia Gazprom-backed South Steam project.

Some of the EU’s millions of euros of energy aid to the developing world could be spent on gas projects, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has told EurActiv. But biofuels, nuclear and coal energy will not be funded. 

Russian home and industrial consumers have traditionally enjoyed generous subsidies for natural gas. Today, the Kremlin finds itself in a tough spot - satisfying domestic constituents or authorising dramatic rises in gas prices to fund major projects planned the Gazprom monopoly, Stratfor analysts say.

Norwegian and Russian energy relations might be put at risk when it comes to the exploration and acquisition of untapped energy resources in the Arctic with both countries increasing their militarisation in the area, Stratfor writes.

Greater gas discounts combined with an offer to build natural gas storage facilities may help Russia increase its leverage in Turkey, writes Stratfor.