Gazprom’s Renege on Exxon’s Gas Exports

Craig Pirrong, who blogs at the Streetwise Professor, has a post up over at Seeking Alpha about Gazprom’s collision with ExxonMobil over Sakhlin-1 gas exports.  The Russian government’s inability to honor contracts and property rights is becoming notoriously well known and damaging, especially when it comes to dealing with the Chinese.

I repeat: “The domestic market will be a priority for the Far East and eastern Siberia.” To translate: If XOM has a deal that allows them to export the gas, well, that’s just its tough luck.

So how will Putin bludgeon ExxonMobil into moving the gas to the domestic market-and likely at controlled domestic prices-rather than to a more lucrative export market?

With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “How can I screw thee? Let me count the ways.”