Posted on 09/16/2011 11:55:37 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
AFP - Three EU energy majors on Friday agreed to take a 50-percent stake in a Black Sea natural gas link Russia is developing for Europe's growing market in competition to one backed by the United States.
The partners said Italy's ENI will get a 20-percent stake in South Stream's offshore operator while Germany's Wintershall and the French firm EDF will each keep 15 percent.
The remaining 50-percent share will belong to Gazprom -- the Russian energy monopoly and world's largest gas producer that is developing routes to bypass nations such as Ukraine with which it suffers price disputes.
"The signing demonstrates that the partner companies agree that South Stream is not only strategically important in the medium and long term, but that it is also a commercial opportunity not to be missed," South Stream chief executive Marcel Kramer said in a statement.
The shareholder structure had been under review since the venture -- founded by Gazprom and ENI -- was joined by BASF's hydrocarbon subsidiary Wintershall and then by EDF.
The $21.5 billion project has been facing questions about its economic viability and doubts as to whether the partners can lock in the reserves needed to feed hungry European markets for the coming decades.
South Stream is being set up in direct competition with the Nabucco pipeline the United States is backing in hopes of relieving Europe's dependence on Russian energy and its accompanying political risks.
Both links hope to tap into Caspian Sea and Central Asian fields that are also finding interest in the booming markets of Asia such as China.
The problems with Ukraine resurfaced again on Friday when its President Viktor Yanukovych unexpectedly suggested diverting a part of the link across his country instead going through the western part of the Black Sea.
But it only took minutes for Gazprom to dismiss Yanukovych's comments as irrelevant.
"They have been offering this for a long time," the firm's deputy chairman Valery Golubev was quoted as saying by Interfax. "But why do that, when we can just run the pipeline straight?"
Russia and Ukraine have in recent weeks reached a new crisis in relations over gas prices following a 2009 conflict that saw gas supplies cut off for three weeks.
The Kremlin said Yanukovych will meet his counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Russia on September 24 in another attempt to negotiate a lower price for Russian gas.
The latest dispute with Ukraine has been used by Gazprom as another argument as to why it needs the South Stream pipeline.
Russia began filling gas into the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream pipeline that runs directly to Germany on August 6.
Nabucco is about hot air, not LNG. Nabucco was response to South Stream, not the other way around, but in vain - all LNG production has been secured in advance by the Ruskies.
Stealing Libyan LNG, not Nabucco, is response to Europe's dependance on Russian energy.
Nord Stream will branch out to Britain and Holland as well. But they will be at Germany's mercy because Germany will control the downstream valve.
Germany will have redundant line of supply via Nord and South Stream and energy control of Western Europe. It's economic Ribenrop-Molotov pact. Add to this an abundant supply of wind-generated electricity and it shows that Germany played her cards well.
The biggest losers are Poles and Ukrainians who will be left not only without the transit fees but also without LNG.
Poles will never learn the lesson - both Ruskies and Germans have track record of long historical memory and United States have a track record of letting allies down the river. Poles ruined themselves by their own stupidity.
Nabucco was first planned in 2002, while plans for South Stream go back to 2007.
South Stream is indeed fascist Russia's answer to Nabucco. The neo-Soviet Kremlin should learn from Libya that their plans to use state-controlled energy supplies as political weapons of blackmail and intimidation will not go unchallenged!
Western Civilization's answer to savage backwards Russia: Nabucco Consortium Welcomes EU Negotiations on Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline - September 14th, 2011 - The EU on Monday agreed to propose a union-wide treaty supporting the completion of a Trans-Caspian pipeline that would connect Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan via the Caspian Sea. Gas from that pipeline would be fed into the EU- and U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline and transported to western Europe on a route that bypasses Russia.
When Russia’s jihadist terrorist ayatollah allies in “Iran” are overthrown then the gas will come from Free Persia as well as the Caspian. If you don’t think so, just remember, you didn’t believe Kadaffy could be so easily overthrown either. You couldn’t even believe it when it happened! haha!
Google the latest news from Libya and see for yourself. NATO's goons got kicked badly in Bani Walid and fled, leaving equipment behind. They are only in control of Benghazi. They do not control Sirte, they do not control whole of Tripoli. For example, Canada can not use their Embassy and had to use temporary location in NTC-held district of Tripoli.
Read the MSM language carefully: NATO's goons are called "rebels" although NTC is recognized by the UN. In reality, Green Libya government ARE the rebels now. Rebels who control the most of Libya and have the allegiance of most of the tribes.We ain't seen nothing yet.
NATO will have to send ground troops in. And body bags out.
If two bit Libya can do that, imagine what will happen in Persia. It will not be pretty.
It seems that NATO strategists never read Sun Tzu.
You do know that even Russia has recognized the rebels right?
It's funny to see people like you put false hope in Russia. They have betrayed you already and you don't even know it.
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