Russia – Mar 4

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Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

Russia reduces natural gas to Ukraine by a quarter
Tanya Mosolova and Pavel Polityuk, Reuters
Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom reduced supplies to Ukraine by a quarter on Monday, just hours after its chairman and Kremlin candidate Dmitry Medvedev won Russia’s presidential election.

Gazprom pledged its exports to Europe would not be affected. A quarter of Europe’s gas supplies pass through Ukraine.

Gazprom has often threatened to cut gas supplies during previous pricing disputes with former Soviet neighbours Ukraine and Belarus, but the threat is materializing only for a second time after the landmark cut in the New Year of 2006.
(3 March 2008)

Russia is emerging as a global economic giant
Liam Halligan, The Telegraph
… I lived in Moscow for several years during the mid-90s – the roughest period of Russia’s “transition” from state-planning to capitalism. I’ve paid regular visits ever since. I now work for a company that manages foreign investments in emerging markets – including Russia.

So, feel free to sniff at my motives. But please don’t sniff at the facts, which show that Russia, over the last ten years, has achieved possibly the most incredible economic turnaround in human history.

When the Soviet Union imploded in the late 1980s and the planned economy collapsed, Russian growth sunk deep into negative territory. For the next decade, the country lurched from crisis to crisis.
(2 March 2008)
Related in UK Times: From bankruptcy to big bucks.

Russian Feb oil exports slump, output stagnates
Reuters
Russian February oil exports slumped to the lowest level since 2004 as record-high crude export duties forced oil firms to re-route volumes to domestic refineries, while output stagnated for a second month in a row.

Energy Ministry data showed on Monday that February oil production was 9.79 million barrels per day, almost unchanged from 9.78 million bpd in January, while pipeline exports to Europe fell to 3.99 million bpd from 4.28 million in January.
(3 March 2008)