Energy Blast – Oct 20, 2011

According to the Washington Post, energy-rich Turkmenistan has accused Russia of attempting to sabotage its efforts to create a gas supply route to Europe via a new trans-Caspian pipeline.  Moscow has warned that the pipeline should not go ahead unless it has the approval of all the bordering states: Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and, of course, Russia.  Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov apparently believes that the 2009 gas contract between Russia and Ukraine, the source of a plethora of political problems, will be revised ‘within a few days’ after meeting with counterpart Vladimir Putin.  Russia and Belarus are also reportedly on the cusp of reaching an agreement on their problematic gas price issues.  Russian diversified private holding company, Summa Group, has won a tender to construct an oil terminal in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.   Tom Levitt reports here on the inexorable and worrisome advent of Arctic industrialization, led by an unchecked Vladimir Putin.