ABB has selected Intergraph^®, provider of enterprise engineering and geospatial software, for the development of an oil and gas pipeline network and relevant facilities in North Africa. The pipeline network will be built in the El Merk field, a remote, harsh desert location in Algeria.

            Geospatial-based pipeline infrastructure management solutions from Intergraph enable companies to design, construct and maintain pipelines and assets more effectively and demonstrate a comprehensive pipeline integrity program while reducing the cost of maintaining records. By storing records in a central geographic information system (GIS), the solution makes information readily available for a variety of applications, improving record keeping productivity while assuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

            Geospatial technology from Intergraph will play a significant role in the design and installation of the pipeline, field gathering stations, gas distribution manifolds, flow and trunk lines and water and gas re-injection facilities in El Merk. The technology will support the Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS) model, the most widely implemented pipeline data model in the industry, and all data will be stored in an Oracle Spatial database. The implementation will also include a portal component for the seamless distribution of data to all parties, including field and remote users.

            “An accurate, up-to-date view of all critical assets at any given time is a crucial component of any pipeline implementation project,” said Sergio Casati, ABB Project Manager. “Especially in such challenging terrain conditions, we need to keep our pulse on the status of all assets in near real-time. The strength of Intergraph technology and its more than 40 years of experience in the utilities sector, as well as market leadership in enterprise engineering software, were key factors in our decision to partner with the company on this project. Intergraph’s open, flexible technology platform was also desirable for an initiative like the El Merk project, which involves a consortium of multiple vendors.”

            “The collaboration of Intergraph with ABB Italy on this project marks a significant milestone in Intergraph’s involvement in the oil and gas pipeline industry,” said Maximilian Weber, Utilities & Communications manager for Intergraph in EMEA. “Intergraph has worked with leading pipeline providers around the world including Spectra Energy and Northwest Energy in the US, E.ON Ruhrgas in Germany and Chongqing Gas in China. We are pleased that ABB has recognized our strength in this industry and has chosen us to ensure the accurate, efficient management of assets, as well as play a key role in protecting this infrastructure.”

www.elmerk.com

www.abb.com

www.intergraph.com

.

Myanmar nationals protest against Chinese gas pipeline project

Russian newspaper Kommersant says that Bulgaria was “kicked off” from the South Stream natural gas pipeline project and replaced by Turkey.

The Bulgarian Energy Holding denies the information.

Economist Intelligence Unit – Business Middle East

1 septembre 2009

Backing Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project fits in with Turkey’s dual aim of maximising its energy supply options and becoming a regional oil and gas hub

Although South Stream could harm the prospects of the rival Nabucco gas pipeline, Turkey evidently wishes to hedge its bets, while ensuring that it remains on good terms with Russia, which currently supplies about two-thirds of its gas.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed a cluster of energy agreements in Ankara on August 6th. Among them was one giving Turkish consent for the conduct of surveys in its territorial waters in the Black Sea for the South Stream pipeline, which aims to start supplying 31bn cu metres/y of gas from Russia to Europe starting 2016. The project is being sponsored jointly by Russia’s Gazprom and Italy’s Eni (hence the presence of the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, as a witness).

Ukraine by-pass

Turkey had earlier opposed a suggestion for surplus capacity in the Blue Stream pipeline, which runs north-south across the Black Sea to Turkey, to be used to feed some of the gas into South Stream. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Ankara clears the way for the South Stream partners to survey various potential routes for the pipeline’s 900-km transit across the Black Sea within Turkey’s Exclusive Economic Zone, thereby enabling it to avoid passing through Ukrainian territory—one of the prime objectives of South Stream and of the Nord Stream project in the Baltic. After reaching the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, South Stream will split in two, with one branch going south through Greece and across the Adriatic to Italy, and another running up through Serbia and Hungary to Austria.

No details have yet been divulged about what direct benefits Turkey might receive if a final decision is taken to build South Stream in its waters. These are likely to include transit fees and rights to buy some of the gas. Mr Erdogan has also secured a number of potential indirect benefits from the other energy agreements reached with Mr Putin.

Turkey has been seeking Russian support for some time for a proposed oil pipeline from Samsun, on the Black Sea, to the Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan, as a means to limit the number of tankers passing through an increasingly congested Bosphorus. It is envisaged that much of the oil for Samsun-Ceyhan would come from Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field—Eni, the operator of Kashagan, also holds a 50% stake, along with Turkey’s Calik Enerji, in the Samsun-Ceyhan project venture. However, its viability would be enhanced if this could be supplemented by some Russian oil, particularly given the lengthy delays that have beset Kashagan. Russia has also flattered Turkey’s energy hub ambitions by agreeing to allow onward sales of gas supplied via Blue Stream to potential clients in the east Mediterranean, including Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria and Israel.

At the Ankara meeting Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan n signed an agreement on nuclear energy co-operation, which could signify that Turkey’s long-standing plan to build its first nuclear power station at Akkuyu, on the east Mediteranean coast may finally come to fruition.

Nabucco impact

Both the Turkish and the Russian leaders insisted that South Stream should not be seen as a rival to the Nabucco project, which aims to pump some 30bn cu metres/year of gas from central Asia and the Middle East to southern and eastern Europe. Indeed, Mr Erdogan last month lent his weight to Nabucco by signing an agreement for the pipeline in Ankara with Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. From Turkey’s point of view, the more gas transit pipelines the merrier, as this will enable it to further diversify its own supplies and secure more toll revenue. However, the progress with South Stream does cast a cloud over Nabucco. Prospective buyers of Nabucco gas will be inclined to drive a harder bargain, as will the potential suppliers of gas for the pipeline.

At present Nabucco has no firm supply contracts in place. Its most promising lead is in Turkmenistan, which has plenty of gas to spare, and which is becoming increasing dissatisfied with its current sales contracts with Russia. The main snag with the Turkmenistan option is that the best way to get the gas to Turkey is via Iran. European buyers are likely to be nervous about putting themselves in a position of dependence on Iran. Moreover, Iran thus far has poor record of reliability in the operation of its existing gas pipeline to Turkey, and its own gasfield projects are beset by long delays. Egypt could supply some gas via its new pipeline through Jordan and Syria, but not enough to make Nabucco viable on its own. Iraq has offered gas, but will need at least a decade to produce the volumes required.

If Mr Erdogan wished to exert some pressure on Mr Putin through endorsing Nabucco last month, the tactic seems to have succeeded.
Turkey’s gas supplies 2008; bn cu metres

Russia 23.6
Iran   5.8
LNG    4.25
Other  2.96

Source: BP

It’s the story of a competition between Europe and Russia for the gas pipeline across Turkey. And Russia is winning:

Russia and Turkey have agreed on the construction of a gas pipeline under the Black Sea soon after the EU signed a deal with Ankara on the Nabucco pipeline. The Russian project is ahead at the moment.

The Russians will be the first to begin construction and they can probably more easily afford the estimated 20 billion euro ($28 billion) costs with their state-run Gazprom. A private consortium is to build the EU pipeline for around 10 billion euro ($14 billion).

The Nabucco project has to be run as a business whereas Gazprom can afford massive losses.

Interesting, isn’t it? European need for energy is a great danger. And each day that politics spend speaking about the merits and pros of “new energies”, without really speeding the development of other sources of energy and the possibility of using the nuclear one (at least, till other one is discovered or we’re able to use it) or this is going to be absolutely devastating for the continent.

Technorati Tags: Russia, Turkey, Europe, Nabucco_project, gas_pipeline

Turkenistan Afghanistan Pakistan TAP pipeline

The Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India is part of the Afghanistan’s 2008 budget and has been mentioned by US policy makers all the way since the 90s. The TAPI pipeline has been called many other names also. It was in the 90s called the Conoco pipeline–those were the days when Mr. Hamid Karzai used to live in Quetta running the Quetta shura of the Taliban (when it actually existed). Mr. Krazai is a self professed Talib himself and right before hell broke loose in 911, he was was the Conoco representative.

Mr. Karzai has been pushing for the Conoco Pipeline to be constructed through Afghanistan. It must be noted that when Afghanistan deteriorated into civil–following the Soviet withdrawal, the CIA and Congressman Rohrabaker were instrumental in bringing the Taliban to power. The Taliban at the time brought peace to the war torn country, and this peace would allow Conoco to build the very lucrative pipeline from the world’s third larger reserve of gas to the Arabian sea and to Bharat where it would provide gas to energy hungry Delhi.

Gas Pipelines. TAPI, TAP, IPI, IPC, TAPC

Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are landlocked nations. They do not have complete control over the utilization of their natural resources, as they are forced to ship their oil and gas via pipelines that run through other countries in order to reach the global market. Whoever controls the pipelines controls the energy they contain, which is vital to a country’s economy and even military strength, as modern militaries, with aircraft, armored vehicles, and gas-powered ships are reliant on oil. The struggle for control of these pipelines is now being waged, quietly but surely, between many countries including Russia, China, Iran, and the United States.[4]

 

Central Asian oil and gas has historically flowed through Russian pipelines. Of course, maintaining this arrangement will also mean that Russia will receive sizable transit fees as well as have more oil and gas with which to secure greater leverage in international politics. China proposes to build a pipeline of about 3000 km from the Caspian oil fields across Kazakhstan and into China to feed its growing economy. Iran would pump the oil and gas south into its existing network, which would boost its efforts to obtain a regional leadership position in the Middle East. The US, attempting to maintain its position as the world’s sole superpower, but without direct geographic access to the region, would like the oil.SRAS. From the Silk Road to Chevron: The Geopolitics of Oil Pipelines in Central Asia by James Fishelson

Centralasian Pipelines: TAPI, IPI, IPC, TAPC

The IPI pipeline has transformed into the Iran Pakistan (IP) Pipeline and the TAPI or even the TAP pipeline has not been started.

Iran Pakistan gas pipeline

Afghanistan is adjacent to Middle Eastern countries that are rich in oil and natural gas. And though Afghanistan may have little petroleum itself, it borders both Iran and Turkmenistan, countries with the second and third largest natural gas reserves in the world. (Russia is first.)

 

Turkmenistan is the country nobody talks about. Its huge reserves of natural gas can only get to market through pipelines. Until 1991, it was part of the Soviet Union and its gas flowed only north through Soviet pipelines. Now the Russians plan a new pipeline north. The Chinese are building a new pipeline east. The U.S. is pushing for “multiple oil and gas export routes.” High-level Russian, Chinese and American delegations visit Turkmenistan frequently to discuss energy. The U.S. even has a special envoy for Eurasian energy diplomacy.

Rivalry for pipeline routes and energy resources reflects competition for power and control in the region. Pipelines are important today in the same way that railway building was important in the 19th century. They connect trading partners and influence the regional balance of power. Afghanistan is a strategic piece of real estate in the geopolitical struggle for power and dominance in the region.

Middleast map with projected pipelines from and to Pakistan. Pipelinestan. TAPI, IPI

Since the 1990s, Washington has promoted a natural gas pipeline south through Afghanistan. The route would pass through Kandahar province. In 2007, Richard Boucher, U.S. assistant secretary of state, said: “One of our goals is to stabilize Afghanistan,” and to link South and Central Asia “so that energy can flow to the south.” Oil and gas have motivated U.S. involvement in the Middle East for decades. Unwittingly or willingly, Canadian forces are supporting American goals.

 

The proposed pipeline is called TAPI, after the initials of the four participating countries (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). Eleven high-level planning meetings have been held during the past seven years, with Asian Development Bank sponsorship and multilateral support (including Canada’s). Construction is planned to start next year.

The pipeline project was documented at three donor conferences on Afghanistan in the past three years and is referenced in the 2008 Afghan Development Plan. Published on Thursday, August 13, 2009 by The Toronto Star Afghanistan and the New Great Game. Prized pipeline route could explain West’s stubborn interest in poor, remote land by John Foster.

Those pushing the TAP and the TAPI pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and or India are looking for peace in the troubled Hindukush. There is hope for peace if the pipeline is built soon. As things stand, work could begin in 2011.

Euractiv reports, that some Russian experts expect the new Bulgarian government lead by Boyko Borissov to freeze work on the South Stream gas pipeline project sponsored by Russia. This comes after the signing of the rival Nabucco project, backed by the European Union.

In the article Vladimir Bruter from the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Sciences says that Moscow should better get used to the idea that the new Bulgarian leader will keep his distance from Russia. A similar analysis is provided by Vasily Kashirin.

.

Burma blames dissident groups for bomb blast

The Thai-Burmese border has a life of its own

Myanmar junta open to talks after US envoy’s visit

China, Burma to build cross border gas pipeline

After a long day, what a shocking and surprising headline.  Sarah Palin is asking for Barack Obama’s help  to finish the gas pipeline that hasn’t really ever gotten anywhere (it’s kind of like that bridge that she lobbied for and then said no thanks to after she got the money for it and then used the money for other things).  What is so shocking about this story is that with her vast foreign policy experience I cannot believe that she needs help from a man who just a few months ago she said palled around with domestic terrorists.

Apparently she wants Obama to speak to the Canadian Prime Minister about the pipeline.  She has been spending so much time running around promoting herself, she has no time to follow up on her own. Or maybe she just wants a domestic terrorist to do her work for her.

C’mon Bible Spice, you want to be president when you grow up, why don’t you try it on you own?

I have always been concerned about the way in which the United Kingdom’s energy supplies are not owned by the United Kingdom. Last year the remaining energy company that had a significant state interest, British Energy, which was the United Kingdom’s largest electricity generator was sold by the United Kingdom Government to EDF, a company controlled by the French Government. British Energy generates electricity mainly from nuclear energy.

It seems to me obvious, and presumably to the French and the Russians, that energy is critical to our safety, well being and prosperity, that one way or another, the State should be able to control energy within its borders. Otherwise, the inhabitants of the state are at the mercy of the businesses that do control it. This statement of the obvious is understood by most countries although in the United Kingdom we allow a free market to effectively hold the inhabitants of the state to whatever pricing structure and terms that the inhabitants will bear.

Natural gas of the cleanest of all fossil fuels and the most important fossil fuel used for space heating and very important for electricity generation. If you have to burn something, then provided you burn it cleanly and efficiently natural gas is the least harmful of fossil fuels when it comes to climate change.

About 20% of the world’s natural gas production is owned by and controlled by Gazprom. Gazprom also provides Russia with about 85% of its natural gas. No other single company or state controls more reserves of natural gas than Gazprom. Gazprom is a Russian company, organised like any other commercial company and larger and more important than most oil companies.

However it differs from the major oil companies in one significant respect. Gazprom is 50.002% owned by the Russian State, which provides it with a controlling interest in this critical industry.

Another disadvantage of a state not controlling its own energy supplies is that the state that does not control its own energy has to compete with states that do control their own energy. This does not make it impossible for the state that does not control its own energy but in times of energy and economic turbulence, a state without control over its own energy will find it harder to manage, without question.

Gazprom supplies much of Europe with natural gas, and will in future supply more and more natural gas to Europe. It also supplies the states that were part of the Soviet Union with natural gas, and in particular the Ukraine. There are thousands of miles of natural gas pipeline that start at the Russian gas fields and deliver gas through and to the Ukraine into Europe.

Coinciding with a very bitterly cold European winter, a dispute arose (not for the first winter) between the Ukraine and Russia, about gas prices and other matters which led Gazprom to cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine. The turning off of the gas valve to the Ukraine meant that those many European countries that relied on Russian natural gas for heat and electricity generation have been without natural gas (and therefore heat) for the past two weeks. It now seems that the dispute has been resolved and the gas tap has been turned on again. In a few days the pressure in the pipelines will be sufficient to enable the people of Europe dependent on Russian natural gas to get warm again.

There is no need to analyse the details of the Russian-Ukrainian dispute; there is probably right on both sides. It is perfectly clear that each Government is acting in the interests of their respective peoples, and that is the critical point.

To me it seems that unless a nation controls its own energy, it is at the mercy of the free markets, both in terms of energy supply. Allowing a foreign state to control your energy is a bit like allowing a foreign state to control its military or its police force.

There are other disadvantages of a state not controlling its own energy supplies and I shall write about them tomorrow.

Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | RUPEE NEWS | January 15th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ |

The IPI pipeline is dead. Long Live the IP Pipeline. Several weeks agao the Pakistanis thought that Iran has put the brakes on it by asking for astronomical prices. The market price for gas is about $5 per barrell, but Iran was trying to ask for $10 per barrel. This has to be negotiated.

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan plans to proceed with a project to import natural gas from Iran through a $7.6 billion pipeline that’s been delayed for more than a decade because of political and security concerns.

“The price demanded by Iran is high,” Pakistan Petroleum Secretary Mahmood Salim Mahmood said in Islamabad today, without providing more details. “We have recommended a renegotiation of the price.”

Iran, which has the world’s second-largest natural-gas reserves, is in talks with Pakistan and India to export gas through a pipeline from its South Pars field. Tensions between India and Pakistan have delayed the project, while the U.S. wants the South Asian nations to abandon the pipeline to isolate the Middle Eastern country on concern, which it says is building nuclear weapons.

“We have told the government to go ahead with the project as other fuels are expensive,” Hina Rabbani Khar, economic adviser to the Pakistan prime minister, said in an interview after a meeting of a steering committee today. Pakistan may scrap the project because of a pricing disagreement, the News newspaper reported today.

Iran and Pakistan have said earlier they will proceed with the project even if India backs out.

The Iranian section of the pipeline is 80 percent complete and 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Pakistan border, Seyed Reza Kasaeizadeh, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Co., said in an interview in Vienna on Nov. 24.

Energy Shortage

The price for Iranian gas to Pakistan won’t be less than $200 for 1,000 cubic meters, Kasaeizadeh said.

Pakistan and India, with a combined population of more than 1.3 billion people, need the pipeline to meet energy shortages. Relations between the two countries have been strained after the Nov. 26-29 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that India says were carried out by a group supported by Pakistan’s official agencies. Pakistan says “non-state actors” were behind the attacks.

Natural gas meets half the energy needs of Pakistan. The country’s daily output of 4 billion cubic feet of gas won’t meet demand next year. Pakistani factories including textile makers are threatening to shut down because of gas and electricity shortages this and last month. The factories account for more than half of the country’s exports.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad at paknews@bloomberg.net; Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: January 15, 2009 08:06 EST. Pakistan to Go Ahead With Iran Gas Pipeline Project: By Khaleeq Ahmed and Khalid Qayum

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Russia and stopped the gas to several European countries. Gas now gives tremendous leverage over most of Europe. 

The Damocles of the anecdote was an excessively flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse. Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so he could taste first hand that fortune. In the evening a banquet was held, where Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he look up and, when he did, notice a sharpened sword, hanging by a single horse-hair, directly above his head. Immediately, he lost all taste for the fine foods and beautiful boys, and asked leave of the tyrant, saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.[1][4]

 Dionysius had successfully conveyed a feeling of the constant fear in which the great man lives. Cicero uses this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples for reaching the conclusion he had been moving towards in this fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that virtue is sufficient for living a happy life.[5] Cicero asks

“Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?”

President Putin now holds the sword of Democles over Europe.

Russia Strikes Gas

The Kremlin has used gas a powerful instrument for political maneuverings, especially in its “backyards”. Russia strives to reasserts its authority in the former Soviet space.  Recently, Russia has shut off all its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine — the latest move in a pricing dispute that has reduced or halted fuel deliveries to a dozen countries during a winter cold snap. About 80 percent of Russian gas to Europe is shipped via Ukraine. Other smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey. The cut-off comes on Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in Russia, Ukraine and a number of other Orthodox Christian countries in Europe, almost the same time when fascist Israel invaded Gaza and began killing the innocent Palestinians there.

Russia and the West supported East European nations are at logger heads these days. The EU depends on Russia for about a quarter of its total gas supplies, some 80% of which are pumped via Ukraine. Russia, which supplies its gas to Europe through Ukraine, has left Europe without gas. Russia cut gas to Ukraine itself a week ago, in the wake of a row over unpaid bills and the expiry of a supply contract. But although both countries guaranteed that transit supplies to Europe would be unaffected, they were soon cut off amid mutual accusations between Kiev and Moscow. There is zero transit. The shutdown triggered by a price dispute between Moscow and Kiev, halted flows to a dozen countries and disrupted supplies to big economies including Germany, France and Italy. 

As hundreds of thousands of homes in Europe remain without heating, Czech Prime minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, will travel to Moscow after talks with Ukrainian leaders on 09 Jan to talk with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to help reach a deal to resume gas supplies to Europe. Russia cut off supplies following a dispute with Ukraine over transit fees, and the price of gas for Ukrainian consumption. Supplies of Russian natural gas via Ukraine have not resumed, despite the arrival of EU monitors in Ukraine. Russia had said shipments of gas to Europe via Ukraine would resume when a team of Russian, Ukrainian and EU monitors started work in Kiev. But Russia said it required a final written agreement to resume pumping.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, “Our goal is to show who is to blame for stealing gas. Such thievery can’t be left unaccountable.” Medvedev also accused Ukrainian authorities of corruption. “The money from these deals was probably used for political aims or to solve personal problems,” he said. But Ukraine’s president and prime minister both repeated denials that Ukraine had stolen gas. “Those statements that have in recent days been heard from the mouth of the Russian leadership – they are incorrect, they humiliate Ukraine,” said President Viktor Yushchenko. Topolanek, representing the EU in Kiev, said a deal was not far off and they have to fine-tune the technical details and to agree on the signature of a trilateral agreement.” Officials meeting in Kiev said an agreement could be finalized, but recriminations continued late on Friday over Russian charges that Ukraine had been stealing gas.

 I

Europe’s heavy dependence on Russian energy — and its vulnerability to supply disruption — was highlighted when Moscow reduced volumes to Ukraine on January 1 after failing to reach agreement with Kiev over debts and gas prices. More than 15 countries have been hit by the shutdown of Russian supplies. Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina are among the worst hit, as many homes there rely on communal heating stations that only run on gas. Bulgaria, which gets nearly all its gas supplies from Russia via Ukraine, has imposed gas rationing and has closed schools. An estimated 100,000 people in Serbia were left without heating when Russian gas supplies to Europe were halted on 07 Jan.

In Bulgaria, thousands of households spent a freezing night without central heating because utilities need time to switch to alternative fuels, municipal officials said. Schools were shut and some companies were closed Wednesday. Czech importer RWE Transgas said the main transit pipeline from Russia to the Czech Republic and Western Europe was halted from midnight. Austria, Slovakia, Poland and Romania also said their supplies were halted, joining Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia, Greece and Croatia who announced Tuesday that supplies of Russian gas via Ukraine had shut down.

Most of its gas-powered heating stations have switched to alternative energy but some can only operate on gas and have had to shut down completely, our correspondent adds. It has also received emergency gas from Hungary and Germany. In neighbouring Bosnia, some 72,000 homes were without heating in temperatures as low as -15C. Leaders warned its gas reserves would last only a few more days. Angry Bulgarians protested in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Sofia on Thursday, holding placards accusing Russia and Ukraine of being “gas terrorists”, the Associated Press reports.

  II

So far eastern and central Europe has borne the brunt of the row, with Bulgaria cutting or suspending supplies to industrial users. Two fertilizer companies halted production. Budapest airport said it would switch to oil from gas heating. The Euro zone’s major economies have so far escaped any significant economic repercussions, but France has reported a drop in supplies and an Italian industry ministry spokesman said Italy has begun tapping its stockpiles of natural gas.

The Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, said the Union was considering holding a summit with Russia and Ukraine but would prefer to stay on the sidelines. With gas stockpiles in Europe falling with each day the disruption continues, and sub-zero temperatures driving up demand, there is no sign Moscow and Kiev are closer to resolving their row over pricing and transit fees. Ukraine’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko wrote in a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev late 06 Jan Tuesday.

In a separate letter to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Yushchenko asked the EU to use all efforts to start talks to end the crisis, which has further dented investor confidence in his country. Some member states have bilateral energy deals with Russia, undermining hopes of a united front. The cost of protecting Ukrainian debt against restructuring or default rose to 54.75 percent on an upfront basis, meaning an investor buying protection for $10 million of Ukrainian debt must pay $5.475 million plus $500,000 a year for five years.

German energy provider E.ON Ruhrgas said drastic cuts and a prolonged cold spell could cause shortages. High energy users like aluminum, glass and metals makers could be hurt by a lengthy crisis. The shutting down of gas supplies via Ukraine has supported gas prices in Britain, although they eased slightly Wednesday after forecasts of milder weather. Benchmark U.S. crude futures were slightly weaker at around $48 a barrel, but winter heating fuel was trading higher as the shortage of gas in many European countries led to fuel switching.

Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey had all reported a halt in gas shipments, while France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary had reported substantial drops in supplies from Russia. In the Czech Republic, gas operator RWE Transgas confirmed Wednesday that Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine stopped completely overnight. The country still receives gas from another route from Norway and customers were not immediately affected, the company said. Romania, which imports about 30 percent of its gas from Russia, said its president, has called Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to discuss the issue and that its government is holding an emergency meeting with producers and distributors.

Russia stopped all gas shipments to Ukraine on Jan. 1 after both countries failed to agree on prices and transit fees for next year. Over the past week, Russia accused Ukraine of siphoning off tens of millions of cubic meters of gas meant for Europe from its transit pipelines. Ukraine admitted diverting some transit gas, saying it had the right to use the fuel to run its pumping system. Gazprom then started dramatically reducing supplies to European consumers this week.

The crisis erupted after Russia and Ukraine failed to agree on a gas price for 2009 and on payment of $600 million Gazprom says it is due from Naftogaz. In 2008, Russia charged Ukraine about half what it charged its European customers for gas. The subsidy is a legacy of the Soviet era, when both countries were part of the U.S.S.R. Gazprom has long sought to charge Ukraine European-level prices. Ukraine says that if it pays more for gas, Russia should pay more for shipping gas through Ukraine.

Neither side has met for talks since negotiations broke down before midnight on Dec. 31, and each side has blamed the other for the breakdown. The cut-off came after Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz agreed to resume face-to-face talks and the head of Naftogaz said he would fly to Moscow on Thursday. Dubbing, the Naftogaz head, said Wednesday the meeting was still on and that the two sides were looking for a solution to the crisis.

Russia has expressed frustration with the absence of negotiations, and said it is ready to resume talks anytime. Ukraine may be in the stronger negotiating position. The country had about 16 billion cubic meters of gas in its vast underground storage system Tuesday. With Ukraine consumers using about 200 million cubic meters a day, and Ukraine producing some of its own gas, the country should not see shortages until early April, the government says.

III

Up to now Ukraine has got its gas at just $179 per thousand cubic metres. This year Russia wants to raise that to $250. That’s still far below what the rest of Europe pays. Many say Moscow can’t pretend this is purely a commercial dispute. There’s little doubt that Russia is using its energy resources as a political tool. What does the Kremlin want to achieve? Gazprom wants to build a pipeline down the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, to supply its gas directly to the rich markets of Western Europe.

But the project, known as “Nordstream” is hugely expensive, fraught with environmental problems, and unnecessary. The current pipeline network through Ukraine is perfectly adequate. Except, that is, if Ukraine keeps jeopardizing supplies to Europe. The Kremlin does not want to rely on a transit country like Ukraine and seeks alternative transit routes. Powerful political figures in Ukraine are colluding with the Kremlin to foment the crisis and bring down President Yushchenko. This would benefit Ukraine’s increasingly powerful Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko. Supporters of this theory say we can expect Ms Timoshenko to turn up in Moscow some time next week, sign a deal with the Kremlin, and return home to Kiev in triumph, having “saved” Ukraine from disaster.

However, according to those who subscribe to the political weapon theory, Russia’s purpose is to bring down the government of Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko. The Kremlin has never forgiven Yushchenko for leading the Orange Revolution in 2004, and for moving Ukraine out of the Russian fold and towards a much closer relationship with Europe and the US.  Yushchenko has applied to join NATO, and says he wants Ukraine to eventually join the European Union. This is anathema to many Russians who consider Ukraine a part of the Slavic heartland.

IV

Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom, which had sharply limited supplies through Ukraine on Jan6, has stopped all gas shipments through the country “It was the Russian side’s decision to stop all gas deliveries to Europe” through Ukraine, which calls the Moscow decision “inappropriate.” Gazprom blamed Ukraine for the closure, and said it was raising supplies to the European Union and Turkey via alternative routes. Despite those measures, the Ukraine shutdown cut Russia’s supplies to Europe — this depends on Russia for a quarter of its gas supplies — by half. Some countries have taken emergency measures to eke out dwindling fuel reserves by switching to other energy sources.

Russia confirmed the cutoff, but said it was Ukraine’s fault because it had shut down the last pipeline carrying gas from Russia. Gazprom also says it is reducing to compensate for the gas it accuses Ukraine of diverting. The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute has left tens of thousands of people in Europe without heat as governments scrambled to find alternative energy sources. Gazprom meanwhile is losing substantial income during a peak season for gas consumption. On a typical winter day, experts say, Gazprom would be pumping about 350 million cubic meters of gas to Europe. It also will soon see an excess of gas in its system that it will have to deal with.

Russian Prime Minister Putin has promised that EU monitors can go anywhere in Russia to verify gas flows, said Topolanek. The EU said the first of its monitors arrived in Kiev on Friday lunchtime. They were expected to start touring gas pumping stations later. A major stumbling block was removed earlier when Ukraine agreed to accept Russian experts as part of the monitoring mission. The head of Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said Ukraine had given verbal agreement over the monitors. “As soon as the document has been signed… and observers are ready for practical work on the gas stations, transit of gas via Ukraine will be possible,” he said in a statement.

EU experts claim that even when gas supplies are restored, it may still take several days for the gas to reach some areas. And even then, reports the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse from Kiev, there is still no progress on the underlying issue that provoked this crisis in the first place: the question of how much Ukraine should pay Russia for the gas it consumes in the future, and how much Russia should pay Ukraine in return for transporting gas to Europe.

V- Post-script

The standoff has left growing numbers of European Union member states without Russian fuel in freezing mid-winter temperatures. There have also been serious economic setbacks in Europe. The crux of the matter is Russia being a veto wielding UNSC member with a surging economy has become a “problem” for the US-led west which assumed Russia would collapse after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Russian would eventually become a puppet state to be manipulated by the USA and Europe. West is increasingly becoming a weak structure in front of a surging Moscow and unable to “contain” Moscow in any way, including by invoking the WTO issue. The Russo-Ukraine standoff would continue to be stable and would resurface time and again.

Gazprom relies on Ukraine’s vast pipeline network to deliver the bulk of those exports to Europe and Russia wants to self-reliant and does not want to trust a pro-US Ukraine any more.  With sub-zero temperatures across the country, at least eight towns and cities were technically cut off in this gas cut. Moscow perhaps wants to coerce Kiev to return to the Kremlin’s fold.

Considering the strong position of Russia and the reasons for the standoff behind the “Gas strikes” as being political, rather than economic or security, the EU has a limited ability to act and it has failed to reduce its use of Russian energy because of internal divisions and the lack of alternatives. The EU, therefore, has turned down requests from Kiev to mediate, saying it is a commercial dispute to be solved by Kiev and Moscow, but however sent a mission to meet Ukrainian officials Monday. But pressure on the EUnion to act is likely to increase if the dispute continues. World has already seen how new Moscow functions and USA cannot bully Russia as it does Pakistan or invade as it has done in Afghanistan and Iraq. How far the Western diplomacy is going to work now in the “cold” conditions of the East remains to be seen.

DR.ABDUL RUFF Colachal The only Indian to have gone through entire India

Columnist & Independent Researcher in World Affairs,

South Asia.

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Kalpataru Power Transmission has won a very prestigious gas pipeline contract in India for largest diameter size against a very stiff competition with domestic & international companies.

GAIL has recently awarded to KPTL-Zangas consortium section – B of the prestigious 48 dia Vijaypur-Dadri high pressure gas pipeline project at an estimated contract value of Rs 240 crore. KPTL had submitted their bid in consortium with JSC-Zangas for GAIL’s prestigious Vijaipur-Dadri pipeline project in June, 2008. The section consists of 165.5 KMs of 48 pipeline with associated facilities. Preliminary activities for implementation of the project have already been undertaken.

KPTL has already completed over 1000 kms of cross country pipelines in India in the last four years of starting Infrastructure business in oil & gas sector. The reputation earned by the infra division of KPTL is that of a highly reliable contractor. Recently KPTL’s exemplary performance on Panvel-Dabhol Pipeline in Western Ghat areas had enabled GAIL to timely commence gas supply to Dabhol Power Plant.

KPTL has invested Rs 100 crore in specialized construction equipment to enable this division boast of a capability of building cross country pipelines of any size from 12 inch to 48 inch and in toughest of terrains. A highly capable and committed team of KPTL-infra division is an envy of many a competitors.

The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 08 December 2008.