Posted on 01/03/2007 10:30:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv
These days Russia ranks as Europe's principal source of natural gas, and evidence of the Kremlin's readiness to use its status for political leverage has become frequent, whether it's in pricing spats with Ukraine last winter or with Belarus last month. "What has changed is that Russia has begun using energy as a political tool," says Dmitry Kisilev of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Strategic Studies Center. "Europeans fear that they will be next." ...The once abundant reserves in the North Sea are now in steep decline. Within 20 years, Britain could be 90 percent dependent on imported gas. The big consumers of Western Europe can look to other suppliers in the Middle East or North Africa -- notably Algeria -- to ease their dependence on Russia... Oslo has pledged that it won't abuse its strength to play politics. Says Store: "We don't take Russia as our role model." A nation heavily dependent on its oil and gas revenues can't afford to make enemies or relax its efforts to exploit its strengths. Last month its two biggest players in the oil and gas industry, Norsk Hydro and Statoil, announced a $30 billion merger to form the world's biggest offshore operator.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I thought it was to get more lutefisk..........
"..Russia has begun using energy as a political tool.."
What's so mysterious about that? Ever heard of OPEC?
Isn't it old?
Norwegian Gold?
good find!!!!
He who has the gold , black gold, natural gas, makes the rules. RUSSIA is that nation
Um.......the American equivelent exists. It is called the Beaufort Sea............
With Shell planning to restart drilling in the Beaufort Sea and seismic surveys planned for both the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea, this may be a good time to review the petroleum resource potential of the outer continental shelf of northern Alaska. And at the April 6 meeting of the Geophysical Society of Alaska U.S. Minerals Management Service geologist Kirk Sherwood spoke about the new MMS assessment of Alaska’s Arctic offshore region.
Sherwood said that MMS divides most of that region into two large areas, the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea planning areas. The new MMS assessment has estimated a total of 104 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas and 23.6 billion barrels of undiscovered technically recoverable oil in these two areas combined. That represents about 79 percent of the gas and 89 percent of the oil in all of the outer continental shelf of Alaska, Sherwood said.
add in the huge new discovery in the Gulf...
Yep......too bad the MSM and envirowackos are holding us hostage to the likes of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Chavex in Venezuela. The great untold truth is the USA has VAST natural resources yet to be discovered which could make us energy independant in 20 years or less if we were allowed to tap them. ANWR my ass, the Canadians are STRIP MINING vast sections of Alberta to get oil sands, but we can't do the MUCH MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY friendly drilling in small sections of our country. Disgraceful!
It is, but on an altogether different *scale*. [rimshot!]
...I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bathyscaph.
Thanks! It was linked off some other article that I wound up finding more or less by accident (a standard news search I do, turned up something that didn't turn out to be a fit). Serendipity.
I thought it was the Clampetts.
History has not exactly shown that owners of great natural wealth automatically rule and prosper. It's a currency among many.
Over time, your country may be happy that it hasn't plundered it's natural resources as fast as it would be convenient for today.
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