Misinterpreting Modern Russia by Sergi Bruno S

Author:Sergi, Bruno S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 2009-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Western Europe

Russia does not view Western Europe through the lens of an ever-increasing demand for these resources. Building up an extensive network of pipelines with virtually all countries in Western Europe is less a factor of isolating and more of cooperation. Nevertheless, those huge financial revenues represent a major element in Russia’s existence and its primary means of funding is a matter of fact.

In the recent past, the Druzhba (friendship) line has served the West and is the largest Russian export pipeline to Europe today. Beginning in Samara (in the southeast part of Russia, near Kazakhstan) and spanning over 2,500 miles, it collects oil from Western Siberia, the Urals, and the Caspian Sea and heads to Mozyr (Belarus), where it forks for Belarus/Poland/Germany (so-called Northern Druzhba) and Belarus/Ukraine/Slovakia/Czech Republic/Hungary (Southern Druzhba). But new and unique projects are underway and when realized will give the European Union greater confidence in gas supplies from Russia and secure full and uninterrupted deliveries. Gazprom’s goal has been to bypass Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland in supplying gas to Western Europe.

First came blueprints for the North European Gas Pipeline, or North Stream, which would run under the Baltic Sea from the coast of Russia to Germany. The offshore pipeline will cross territorial waters of Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, thereby bypassing the three neighboring Baltic States and Poland, which often have tense political relations with Russia. The former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed to become the chairperson of the shareholders’ committee (i.e., equivalent to a board of directors) of the Gazprom-controlled North European Pipeline consortium. This appointment occurred less than four weeks after Schroeder formally stepped down as chancellor in November 2005, without any cooling off period, and it brought about vast speculation, especially among German commentators. The remaining 49 percent was split among German electric power generators, the distributor of gas E.ON Ruhrgas (20%), and BASF (20%)—the world’s largest chemical company—and the N.V. Nederland Gasunie (9%). The $5-billion or so investment will be fed from the huge Yuzhno-Russkoye field and additionally from fields in Yamal Peninsula and eventually the majority of gas produced at the Shtokman field would be sold to Europe (and that is the first ever German-Russian joint venture in Russia’s gas upstream)—with an annual transmission capacity of approximately 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas. The final project involves laying two parallel transmission pipeline legs: the first leg by 2010 and the second one in 2012. The first gas delivery is slated for 2011 with annual transmission capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters per year for each leg. The jointly built, roughly 1,200-kilometer-long pipeline will pass under the Baltic Sea, will connect at Vyborg (located near St. Petersburg), and go under the Baltic Sea through Greifswald (provisionally earmarked as landfall) into northeast Germany. It will then potentially continue into Britain, bypassing the three Baltic States and Poland, and thus more closely anchoring Russia to Europe without having to pay transit fees or barter gas to countries through which transportation is needed.

President Putin prospected a major partnership role with the West and Germany.

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