What I noticed today:
1. Gaz de France gives up the Nabucco project
2. LukOil cuts off crude oil deliveries to Germany
3. Last, but not least, the situation in Kosovo...
For those of you who do not know, Nabucco is supposed to transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. To pump said gas into the pipeline, the project harvests it from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Egypt and Syria and connects within Turkey to the Tabriz - Erzurum pipeline and to the Baku - Tbilisi - Erzurum pipeline. At the delivery point in Austria it delivers the gas to what it is supposed to be the European central deposit in Baumgarten. This deposit aims to be a buffer against the Russians' energy blackmail activities such as the last winter ones and such as any other possible ones if Ukraine does not pay the price Russia demands. [Later Edit, February 21: but here we are heading to this... it's good that summer comes, though] Until the project becomes operational (supposedly in 2012) we will for sure be depending on Russian energy resources.
This idea has interesting side effects between the EU an the US. Let us remind you here that Turkey reached the status of an aeternal EU candidate country while it is a NATO member country and a US supporter. Whish United States are slowly starting to dig for resources - brave Chaves cut down the pipes towards America. His action led to an increase in crude oil prices to an average US$100 per barrel.
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