By Stephen Levy

Despite ongoing sanctions against Russia’s energy industry by the U.S., E.U., and other western nations, Russia reported on March 2^nd that its February production had not changed nationwide, according to Reuters.  Despite the broad stability, production did shift in the nation; Rosneft, the largest oil producer in the country, actually saw its production decline by 0.2% in February, due to aging fields and infrastructure. Smaller energy producers increased production to match, with exports of 4.27 million barrels a day in February, versus 4.34 million a day in January. This stability is relatively unsurprising; sanctions against Russia’s energy sector targeted new investment and fields, rather than existing production. However, the decline in oil prices may affect the economics of Russia’s energy sector, and lead to production declines in the future.

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March 30, 2015

By Evan Abrams

Abu Dhabi has been actively seeking to diversify its economy away from the energy sector it has been so dependent on. Part of this effort is the proposed Abu Dhabi Global Market, a financial center designed to attract banking and finance business from around the world. According to The National, a UAE newspaper, newly released documents show the market will be based primarily on English common law with some elements from Singapore and Hong Kong. Certain English statutes, such as those governing contracts and partnerships will also be utilized.

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February 09, 2015

By Catherine Kent

Reuters reports that the European Union agreed on Thursday, September 11, to begin new sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, to which Russia responded by declaring that the EU had “made its choice against” the current peace road map aimed at ending the confrontation between Moscow and the West. President Barack Obama said he will provide details on the new U.S. sanctions new U.S. sanctions on Friday, which will target Russia’s financial, energy, and defense sectors in Tandem with the EU’s sanctions.

If the US follows suit on the EU’s move towards shared energy technology sanctions, US business groups (with $700 million deals with Russia) may have something to start worrying about. You can read more about the economic consequences at Politico.

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September 17, 2014

By Aliza Kempner

As the conflict continues to smolder between Russia and Ukraine, new participants are hoping to step onto the natural gas scene. Azerbaijan, a small country seated between Russia and Iran, is looking to build a $45 billion natural gas pipeline to channel gas into Europe, territory previously covered by Russia’s natural gas supply. Connecting its drilling operations in the Caspian Sea to Italy, the preliminary plan is to carry 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

Politico has more on Azerbaijan’s ambitious plan and the possible threat it poses to Vladimir Putin. 

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April 23, 2014

By Sam Obenhaus

NATO-Ukraine Commission session in Brussels |
U.S. Department of State on Flickr 

Money flows quickly.  It has no morals and tends to have a very short memory.  In the case of great powers, it’s tentacles also bind economies together in ways that are hard to define and even harder to untangle.

This last trait has, of course, been a tremendous benefit of expanding trade and interdependence since the latter half of the 20^th century.  Global trade, some like to say, is now “too big to fail.”  The interconnectedness it created pacified Europe, the most violent continent for the majority of recent history, and this is not about to change.  World War III, or even another Cold War, is not around the corner.

But has the deterrence of large-scale conflict come at the expense of reducing the expected costs associated with moderate acts of aggression?  This is the hypothesis Russian President Vladimir Put is testing in Crimea and maybe soon in Eastern Ukraine.

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April 04, 2014

By Abraham Shanedling

 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Hungary is against the European Union imposing sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Crimea.

 

In an interview with Vilaggazdasag newspaper, Orban said that economic sanctions are “not in the interests of either Europe, or much less Hungary.”

 

The comments are not surprising given that Russia is Hungary’s largest trading partner, with Hungary relying on Russia for the vast majority of its natural gas. Hungary also recently signed a 10 billion Europe deal with Russia to expand Hungary’s nuclear plant.

 

Reuters has more on the story.

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April 02, 2014

By Aliza Kempner

Work on the Nord Stream pipeline.
By Bair175 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

The political scene remains fiery in the Crimean peninsula, it’s looking like Ukrainians may soon lose the ability to keep heat in their homes. Gazprom, Russia’s state-owed monopoly of natural gas, is threatening to pull the cord on its subsidized trading of natural gas to Ukraine. This isn’t just Ukraine’s problem either - most of Europe gets its gas from Russia, and the United States may soon add our own fuel to the fire.

In December of last year, former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych brokered a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to allow Ukraine to purchase natural gas at a price of $268.50 per thousand cubic meters of gas rather than $400. Ukraine depends on Russia for between 60-70 percent of the gas is uses to heat homes and keep businesses running. Since then, however, Yanukovych has been overthrown in a frenzied uprising, and as the Kremlin recently reminded it, Ukraine still owes Gazprom a whopping $1.55 billion. This is a little more than most countries would be okay with spotting neighbors to cover the gas bill, especially when that neighbor was rumored to have stolen gas transported through its territory en route to Europe and already had a reputation for making late payments. Still, the loss of this deal, which had provided Ukraine with a total saving of $2 billion per year, could be catastrophic for Ukraine, especially as an unsteady new government tries to take charge and Russian troops intensify their attempts to control the region.

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March 20, 2014

By Stephen Kozey

Everyone knows that China has become one of the most important economies in the world, and it plans to keep things that way. But how? On Wednesday, you can find some answers to that question at ASIL’s full-day presentation, featuring top Chinese government officials. The Assistant Minister of Commerce and his team will speak about China’s plan to stay on top, including discussion of clean and renewable energy laws and their affect on entrepreneurship in China.

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December 03, 2013

By Min Wu

The European Commission has conducted an investigation on China’s solar industry, and Reuters has an interesting piece on the results. The Commission has found that China broke World Trade Organization rules by handing out cheap loans, land, interest-free credit lines, and tax breaks to its companies.

However, Chinese companies told Reuters that economies of scale, not illegal subsidies, are what allow them to sell at lower prices than their European rivals. China has also accused Europe of subsidizing its solar industry by giving aid to final users of solar energy.

Read more at Reuters.

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September 01, 2013