Free Republic

Lenin defined communism as "Soviet power plus electrification of the entire country." Vladimir Putin takes a similar view. An updated slogan for Putin’s regime might read "Kremlin power plus control of the oil and gas industry." Europe received a taste of how the Kremlin might wield that power at the start of the new year when Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas company, reduced the pressure on pipelines carrying gas through Ukraine to western Europe. ... It should not have come as a surprise. Gazprom, which was semi-privatised in the early 1990s by senior managers of the former Soviet ministry of...

Alexey Miller, chairman of the management of Gazprom, arrives in Uzbekistan today. He intends to reach an agreement with President Islam Karimov on Gazprom's development of the three largest natural gas deposits in Uzbekistan. If negotiations are successful, the Russian company will have a de facto monopoly on as export from Uzbekistan. All Tashkent wants in exchange is a 100-percent guarantee that Russia will help Uzbekistan suppress antigovernment demonstrations and protect it from the West. Gas First and Foremost The main goal of Miller's visit to Tashkent today is to conciliate the latest versions of the agreement giving Gazprom the...

ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, as Russian President Vladimir Putin was assuming the chairmanship of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, he mocked the free-market creed of that exclusive club by cutting off the flow of Russian natural gas to Ukraine. That transparent attempt to influence Ukrainian politics reflected the Kremlin's statist control of Russia's lucrative energy sector... If there was any lingering doubt about Putin's command of Russia's state-controlled energy conglomerates, it was erased by the ostentatious role he played during the showdown with Ukraine. Officials of the energy giant Gazprom were seen live on state-run TV making reports directly...

President Vladimir Putin warned the head of state oil company Rosneft on Wednesday that he should count on competition when tapping Russia's vast reserves. Putin's remarks to Rosneft chief Sergei Bogdanchikov underscored the energy ambitions of powerful groups in the Kremlin, including Rosneft's chief rival in the race to consolidate control of the oil industry _ Gazprom. advertisementAfter Bogdanchikov informed Putin that Rosneft would be the nation's biggest oil producer in two years' time, with daily production of some 2.5 million barrels within a decade, the president cut in. "How much do you plan to grow by?" a smiling Putin...

Gazprom-Media said Thursday that it was about to buy a controlling stake in Izvestia, one of the country's largest and most respected national newspapers, in a move that would expand state control of media beyond television. Gazprom-Media general director Nikolai Senkevich made the announcement on Ekho Moskvy radio, saying that the deal to buy the stake from Prof-Media, the media holding in Vladimir Potanin's sprawling Interros business empire, would be completed "in the near future." "Negotiations on this issue are close to completion and we will officially announce the deal in the next few days," Gazprom-Media spokesman Anton Sergeyev...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The emerging markets event of the year -- the opening up of share trading in the world's largest gas producer Gazprom -- is likely to be only partial and may be some time off yet, fund managers and analysts warned on Friday. Gazprom (GAZPq.L: Quote, Profile, Research) this week said existing curbs on foreign buying of its stock will go by the end of the year after the state gets a controlling stake via a cash buyback of Gazprom treasury stock. The latest plan, which sparked a jump in the share price, replaced an ill-starred attempt to...

THE KREMLIN will receive three guests this week. The first supplicant, Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, might not wish to be so described. Her style is not to bend the knee, and her host, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, will have his ear bent about democracy and the virtues of the open society. José Manuel Barroso, the EU President, will hector less and try to engage President Putin in conversation about trade, security and the question of Russia’s “near abroad”, the former Soviet republics which are described less imperially in Brussels as “the common neighbourhood”. Finally, Lord...

MOSCOW – The price of Russia's main export, oil, is hovering at record highs. The government is currently pocketing nearly $20 on every barrel produced. So why are foreign investors running for the exits, and the country's economy suddenly slowing? A high-stakes battle for the direction of the Russian economy is creating new uncertainty, prompting investors and others to pull back. On the one side are Russian liberals, who favor rapid market reform and merging with the world economy. On the other are the siloviki, ex-security men who want to build a state-guided economy. "This struggle between siloviki and liberals...

Russia will stop cheap gas supplies to Moldova from 2006, chief executive of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Alexander Ryazanov announced Wednesday. Experts say it is a first major sign of retaliation by Moscow against a pro-western shift by the country’s leader. The move comes just days before President Vladimir Voronin, a former Russian ally, seeks election to a new term by the new Moldovan parliament. Ryazanov told journalists that Gazprom would begin selling gas to Moldova at prices it currently charges European customers. The cost of fuel could therefore almost double from the current $70 per 1,000 cubic meters. Russia...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. With the prospect of declining reserves, rising extraction costs, and recent poor record of exploration in their traditional fields of operation the international oil 'majors' need better access to untapped oil fields in the Middle East and Russia. However, easy to express in words, the actual process itself promises to be rather arduous. While under heavy pressure from the need to preserve the returns their investors expect, the international oil companies (IOCs) are less welcome in oil-producing countries: increased nationalism and consistently higher crude prices have reduced many governments' need for...

The Axis of Oil: China and Russia find a new way to advance their strategic ambitions February 7, 2005 by Irwin M. Stelzer The Weekly Standard Volume 010, Issue 20 A COLD WEATHER WAVE HITS America's northeast, oil inventories are drawn down, and prices rise. A pipeline is blown up in Iraq, and prices rise even more. The OPEC cartel meets and agrees to cut back production, adding to price pressures. The government announces a rise in inventories, or weather forecasters predict a thaw, or the Saudis say they will step up oil production, and prices fall. All interesting, all...

Russia's hydrocarbon geopolitics By Sergei Blagov MOSCOW - Russia is moving towards building new geopolitical muscle based on its huge oil and gas riches: this week Moscow conceded that its policy, notably in the Middle East, has been strongly connected with energy considerations. "The situation in the Middle East influences the world economy, notably one sector in which Russia holds a special position, the energy sector. This and many other things determine our proactive approach in the Middle East," Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with visiting Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on January 31. In response, Abbas told Putin...

KHABAROVSK, February 4 (Itar-Tass) - Rosneft has begun deliveries of oil to China. The first tank cars were already dispatched there,” Rosneft President Sergei Bogdanchikov stated here on Friday. “Russia and China have signed an intergovernmental agreement, in accordance with which the former is to deliver by rail to China in 2005 a total amount of ten million tons of petroleum. Beginning from 2006, the oil deliveries are to be increased up to fifteen million tons,” the Rosneft president stated. There are enough resources to cope with this program, Bogdanchikov stated

MOSCOW, Russia--It was a momentous week for the Kremlin. On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signaled his intention to control regional politics more closely by saying that regional governors would no longer be directly elected. On Tuesday, the government showed the world its determination to control the Russian oil and gas industries. It will do so by merging Rosneft, an oil producer, with Gazprom, the dominant Russian gas extractor. The deal, flagged on 14 September and likely to be completed in 2005, would make Gazprom an even more gargantuan group. However, the importance of Rosneft is not so much its size,...

Nov 18, 2004 OPEC dethroned, Putin's "KremPEC" arrives Dr. Peter Lavelle Russia Analyst based in Moscow (download PDF version) (read his bio) For the past year, oil analysts, politicians, and investors have been bewildered by the Kremlin's legal assault in Russia's largest privately own company – oil giant Yukos. For most observers, attacking and driving Yukos into bankruptcy, particularly as petroleum markets are experiencing volatility, is irrational for both Russia's domestic and international interests. However, there is a method to Putin's "madness" – he intends to completely re-order the nature of international oil politics, with Russia playing the leading role....