The bilateral Russia Ukraine gas transit contract expires at the end of this year bringing the potentially conflicting interests of both parties and the EU into focus. The EU will be acting in the interest of those member states directly affected as well as having a role in avoiding tensions affecting its neighbour Ukraine. Cue much speculation from interested and neutral observers alike. Zuzanna Nowak, independent researcher and commentator, … [Read more...]
Small nations have big plans for nuclear energy
Dan Yurman looks at how small nations are trying to increase their nuclear supply. Romania has the US and China both pitching for business. The Czech Republic is still vague about giving electricity price guarantees, something that caused the collapse of a $25bn nuclear tender in 2014. Ukraine looks at Small Modular Reactors. The author starts with the Baltics – net importers of electricity – and Estonia’s ambition to redress that balance using … [Read more...]
Special report: South East and Eastern Europe PART I – Subsidised fossil-fuel power blocking the way for renewables
Right on the border with Western Europe, countries in South East and Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia have enormous potential for renewable energy, but it remains largely untapped. A stark contrast to the situation a few kilometres further North and West. The region’s fossil-fuel and nuclear subsidies are among the highest in the world. The subsidies and accompanying low electricity prices translate to an unrealistic cost of … [Read more...]
Renpower Ukraine 2019
The 2nd Renewable Energy & Power Infrastructure Investors Conference Register now Program Euroconvention Global is excited to announce the forthcoming RENPOWER Ukraine 2019: The 2nd Renewable Energy & Power Investment Conference set to take place on January 31st at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kiev. The inaugural edition hosted 150+ participants from 28 countries and was evaluated by all attendees as a cost-effective informative … [Read more...]
Ukrainian Gas E&P Forum in London
Last month the Ukrainian government announced that it is conducting international hydrocarbon licencing rounds through concession auctions and PSA tenders. 30 onshore oil & gas blocks are being put up for sale via online auctions. The first round of 10 blocks, covering 1, 120 square miles in 6 regions, was announced last month and the auctions will take place on 6th March; Production Sharing Agreements for 12 onshore blocks, covering … [Read more...]
Gas revolution? Prospects for increasing gas production in Ukraine
Ukraine wants to be self-sufficient in gas by 2020, which means increasing production by 35%. A plan is in place, reforms have been made, investments have increased and an international auction for 50 mining concessions is scheduled for 2019. But, says Wojciech Konończuk of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), the country will only be able to fully exploit its large gas reserves if there are more reforms, corruption is reduced and foreign money … [Read more...]
Gas Geoeconomics in Europe: make Russia a “normal” gas supplier again
To protect Europe from Russian gas coercion, the U.S. should take the unorthodox step of investing in European gas infrastructure, write Gabriel Collins and Anna Mikulska of the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies. Such a "geoeconomics-based strategy" would help blunt and deflect the Kremlin’s gas wedge. … [Read more...]
The militarization of U.S. energy policy: Donald Trump enlists fossil fuels in the struggle for global dominance
As the recently published National Security Strategy shows, Donald Trump has turned the expansion of the U.S. fossil fuel industry and its exports into a major component of American foreign and security policy, writes energy expert and author Michael T. Klare. In the view of the Trump administration, anyone that stands in the way of American exploitation of oil, gas and coal resources is viewed as an obstructer of the national interest, notes … [Read more...]
Interview Maroš Šefčovič, VP Energy Union: “I made the promise 2016 would be year of delivery and I intend to keep it”
“If we want a cost-effective transition to a low-carbon economy, we have to create an internal energy market where European rules apply”, says Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s Vice President for the Energy Union, in an exclusive interview with Energy Post. According to Šefčovič, “big parts of our energy market are [still] overregulated”. To take a decisive leap towards the Energy Union, the Commission has decided to put all its energy … [Read more...]
viEUws VIDEO: Brussels Briefing on Energy for December 2015
Brussels correspondent Hughes Belin reports on the EU's first ever State of the Energy Union report, with details on achievements to date and legislative proposals to come in 2016. He notes the many challenges the internal energy market still faces, notably from national capacity markets. The European Commission has fleshed out its thinking on a new governance system for energy, including obligations for Member States. EU Energy Ministers … [Read more...]
Klaus Schäfer, future CEO of E.ON spin-off Uniper: “EU should set a target for gas”
The EU should define how much gas it wants by when, and recognise that Nord Stream 2 can provide additional security of supply, argues Klaus Schäfer, the incoming CEO of E.ON spin-off Uniper in this exclusive interview with Energy Post. Schäfer, who is currently Board member of the E.ON Group, says Europe is further away than ever from a single market for electricity and calls on policymakers to recognise that security of supply has a cost. He … [Read more...]
Why Ukraine has to reform its gas sector
Ukraine has embarked on “the mother of all reforms”: that of the gas sector. This is one of the most important and most difficult reforms Ukraine has to undertake. Yet without the marketisation of gas prices and an improvement in Naftogaz’s financial standing, it will be impossible to reform Ukraine’s public finances and end the long-standing economic crisis. Energy sector reform is a central goal of the post-Euromaidan government and indeed the … [Read more...]
Russia’s Grand Gas Strategy – the power to dominate Europe?
For Russia, energy resources, especially gas, are viewed as a tool to project power beyond its borders. However, Russia’s room for “gas games” is constrained by its own capacities, the gas strategies of other players, and the EU’s ability to project its regulatory power, write Zuzanna Nowak and Jarosław Ćwiek-Karpowicz of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) and Jakub Godzimirski of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs … [Read more...]
Winter is (already) coming again – trilateral gas talks recommence
Brussels is hosting the kick-off of a fresh series of trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU this Friday. The goal is to agree, by June, on a successor to the current “winter package” on Ukrainian gas purchases from Russia, which would settle gas – and cash – flows between the two countries until autumn 2016, when an international court in Stockholm is expected to rule on their dispute. … [Read more...]
Interview Andriy Kobolev, CEO Naftogaz: “Gazprom breaches EU law by blocking reverse flow to Ukraine”
Gazprom is blocking reverse gas flow from Slovakia to Ukraine in violation of EU law, says Andriy Kobolev, the CEO of Ukraine’s state-owned gas monopoly Naftogaz, in an exclusive interview with Slovakian energy analyst Jozef Badida. As a result European companies are not able to meet the demand from gas in Ukraine and Ukraine is left at the mercy of Gazprom. Kobolev calls on the EU to take action against the Russian company. But he also notes … [Read more...]
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