Energia, Russia, Usa Nyt 06-06-12
La Russia contratta per una quota maggiore nel settore energetico
occidentale
STEVEN R. WEISMAN
La Russia contratta con le altre potenze la dose di apertura
del proprio mercato energetico.
In cambio dell’apertura
ai capitali russi del mercato di utilitiy, oleodotti, strutture per il gas e
altre infrastrutture, in una bozza per il G8 USA, paesi europei e Giappone chiedono
alla Russia adozione di principi di mercato e maggiore accesso per FDI all’industria energetica russa.
Shuvalov, responsabile
russo per l’organizzazione del G-8: in sospeso la decisione di Mosca sulle offerte
di gruppi esteri per l’esplorazione di una riserva di gas al largo della costa
russa nel Mar di Barents fino a quando l’Occidente dichiarerà la propria disponibilità
alle offerte russe per infrastrutture americane ed europee.
Finora gli investimenti
russi nelle infrastrutture energetiche sono stati modesti, come quello
di Lukoil in una catena di 2000 pompe benzina negli USA.
A inizio 2006, in GB si sono avute forti reazioni protezionistiche
per il tentativo di Gazprom di acquisire il maggior distributore britannico di
gas naturale, simili a quelle negli USA contro l’offerta cinese per Unocal e l’accordo
di una società di Dubai per la gestione di diversi porti americani.
-
Il Caspio è un’area critica per la competizione
russo-americana; soprattuto dopo il crollo dell’URSS gli USA hanno incoraggiato
la costruzione di condotte per gas e petrolio che evitino la Russia, alla quale
il vice-presidente americano Cheney rimprovera di aver cercato di contrastare
gli investimenti occidentali nell’area; gli Usa cercano anche di ridurre la dipendenza
dall’energia del MO. -
Il
segretario di Stato Rice ha chiesto a Turchia e Grecia di non coinvolgere
Gazprom come partner nel trasporto di gas verso il Sud Europa.
Gruppi russi sembrano interessati ad investire sulla costa orientale americana
in gasdotti e strutture per la conversione del GNL.
Nyt 06-06-12
Russia Bargains for Bigger Stake in West’s
Energy
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, June 11 — Russian,
American, European and Japanese officials are negotiating over whether Russia
should be allowed greater latitude to invest in utilities, pipelines,
natural gas facilities and other infrastructure in the United States and Europe.
– In a draft declaration for endorsement at a Group of 8 summit
meeting next month in St. Petersburg, Russia, broadened Russian access is paired with something the West
wants: endorsement of market principles and greater access for foreign investment
in the energy industry of Russia, one of the biggest oil and natural gas
producers in the world.
– Russian investment in
Western energy facilities has been relatively modest, like Lukoil’s investment
in a chain of 2,000 filling stations in the United States.
– But earlier this year,
when Gazprom, the giant Russian natural gas monopoly, expressed an interest in
buying Britain’s largest distributor of natural gas, it raised a furor in
Britain similar to reactions in the United States to a Chinese bid for Unocal
and a Dubai company’s arrangement to control operations
at several American ports.
The political maneuvering keeps a channel for progress open at a time of
fierce tensions between Russia
and the West over access to energy supplies. In
January, Russia cut off natural
gas shipments to Ukraine
during a price dispute, which shut down deliveries in Europe.
The move prompted denunciations from the United
States and Europe, and was seen as an effort to punish Ukraine, long dominated by Russia, for its political independence.
– More recently, Vice
President Dick Cheney and other American officials have rebuked Russia for its
increased state control of the energy sector, its crackdown
on dissent and what they say is an
effort to muscle out Western investments in oil and gas pipelines in the
Caspian Sea, where the United States has been trying to secure energy supplies
in ways that would bypass Russia.
The goal of the energy negotiations,
which are being held at the highest levels, is to smooth over the most pointed
differences between Russia
and the West with some mutually acceptable language. "The U.S., Russia
and Europe are trying to find their way to common ground on the road to the
summit," said Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research
Associates, who talked with Russian and European officials in Europe
last week.
The negotiator for the United States is Faryar Shirzad,
a deputy national security adviser for economic affairs. For France, it is President Jacques Chirac’s
diplomatic adviser, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne. For Russia, it is Igor Shuvalov, President
Vladimir V. Putin’s chief aide in planning the meeting.
Mr. Shuvalov said Russia was determined to get the Group of 8
summit meeting to endorse the principle that for Russia,
"energy security" meant greater access to investment in the West and
to the means of delivery of oil and natural gas. Mr. Putin has said that
energy security will be a main theme of the meeting.
– Mr. Shuvalov said Russia was prepared to use its leverage to get
that access, and had held up a
decision on foreign bids for exploring a potentially huge natural gas reserve
off the Russian coast in the Barents Sea until it was clear that the West would
be receptive to offering similar bids by
Russia for ownership in American and European energy facilities.
Russian investment has in fact already
begun, and it has begun to stoke controversy. Rebuffing pressure from many in Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he
would not try to stop the Russian effort.
– Gazprom and Lukoil are not the only Russian entities looking abroad.
Now the Russians appear
interested in investing in pipelines and liquefied natural gas conversion
facilities on the East Coast, which some experts fear could reignite the
passions that swirled around Unocal and the Dubai port deals, both of which fell through.
Critics of those deals successfully argued that they would have surrendered
vital strategic economic assets to foreign control.
"Gazprom has not been specific on
what it wants in North America," said Thane Gustafson, professor of
politics at Georgetown
University. "But
what they want to do is replicate what they’ve done in Germany and in varying degrees throughout Eastern Europe" he said, referring to investments by
Russian companies in European energy production and transmission.
Mr. Putin aims to use the St. Petersburg
summit meeting to demand respect for Russia as a major energy producer. Russia wants to
rebut the argument, heard after the Ukraine
natural gas cutoff, that it is not a reliable producer, and to bury suggestions from some critics in the United States
that it should be expelled from the Group of 8 nations.
"The summit should recognize that Russia plays a key role in providing energy security,
and that Russia
is ready to open its energy reserves to foreign investment," said Mr.
Shuvalov in a telephone interview. "We think that after this summit, no
one will again question the membership of Russia in the G-8."
The United States is looking to the meeting to endorse Mr. Bush’s vision of "energy security,"
particularly reduced
dependence on Middle East oil, greater
variety of oil resources and more nuclear power. One other important part of
the American vision is that, especially after the Ukraine
cutoff, there should be more
efforts to bypass Russia for
natural gas exports, especially to Europe.
Not surprisingly, the Russians have a
different definition for "energy security," interpreting the term to
mean greater guarantees of access of Russian energy to Europe,
not less. Ownership of European and American pipelines would support that goal,
Russians say.
– One area of
Russian-American competition that could come up at the summit meeting is the
activity in the Caspian Sea, where at least since the 1990’s, after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States
has sought to encourage oil and gas pipelines that would not go through Russia.
– Earlier this year, for example,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Turkey
and Greece not to engage
Gazprom as a partner in bringing natural gas to southern Europe. Gazprom is viewed in the West as a shadowy creature of the Russian
state that has enriched the people around Mr. Putin.
Comments like those of Ms. Rice and Mr.
Cheney challenging Russian energy dominance in the region have hurt the
atmosphere for the summit meeting, Mr. Shuvalov said. But American officials
say it is in Russia’s
interest to encourage diversity of supply.
"Despite what they think, it’s not
that we want to shut Russia out," said another senior administration
official involved in planning the summit meeting, who requested anonymity
because he did not want to speak publicly about issues still under negotiation.
"That’s ridiculous. Russia
will always be a major energy exporter and transit route. What we’re trying to do is make sure
there is no monopoly on energy, to avoid someone manipulating the
markets."
New York Times