Pipeline Cements Russia’s Hold on Europe’s Gas Suppl

NYT ^ | : January 19, 2008 | By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER and JUDY DEMPSEY

[Flavius]

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Russia strengthened its grip on Europe’s energy supplies on Friday as it signed a major gas deal with Bulgaria that analysts said would further undermine the European Union’s attempts to diversify its energy sources.

[nyyankeefan]

if europe freezes...will the f’n muzzie terrorist invaders go back to the deserts???

[Calvin Locke]

Reagan and Thatcher were at odds over this during his first term.

Thatcher wanted the economic activity that the pipeline construction would generate.

Reagan thought the then-Soviet NG was a high price to pay in both dependency and the actual price of the long term contract.

[bereanway]

Russia’s is quickly moving to bring Europe to heel from an energy viewpoint. They’re trying to bypass nations friendly to the US such as Poland and Ukraine and building the Nord Stream pipeline underneath the Baltic into Norhtern Germany and now the South Stream underneath the Black Sea into Bulgaria.

Russia through Gazprom controls nearly 1/3 of the world’s proven natgas supplies and they’re working to tie up Iran’s natgas as well as North Africa’s natgas supplies which are the other two primary sources Europe relies upon. Not too far down the road and they’re going to put Europe in a real bind.