Few environmentalists would regard themselves as allies of Vladimir Putin. Indeed, in their stout opposition to petroleum, which the Russian president is using both as a piggy bank and a weapon for expanding his power, it might appear that they are opponents. Such a view is superficial. In many ways, both Mr. Putin’s Russia and the modern green movement are offshoots of the collapse of the Soviet empire. They remain united against the old Soviet enemy: free markets and free minds. --Peter Foster,
Financial Post, 8 March 2014
Europe’s alternative energy policy is in a shambles. The EU would be even more vulnerable but for a typically unanticipated example of free market ingenuity: hydraulic fracturing and the boom in shale gas. But guess what: Greens are everywhere resolutely opposed to fracking, and nowhere more than in Europe. Like their peace march colleagues half a century ago, they are ultimately dupes for an authoritarian agenda, be it that of the high priests of Gaia, or Vladimir Putin. --Peter Foster,
Financial Post, 8 March 2014
Western officials are scrambling to loosen Russia’s energy stranglehold on Ukraine, the latest sign of growing pressure on Moscow to end the crisis. The options being considered by officials from Brussels to Washington include larger exports of U.S.-made natural gas, reversing the flow of natural gas through pipelines from Western Europe back into Ukraine, and accelerating plans across Europe to buy more energy from countries other than Russia. “If no solution to this can be found,” European countries will “recast their approach to energy and economic links with Russia over time,” U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday. --Ian Talley and Amy Harder,
The Wall Street Journal, 10 March 2014
The current conflict in Ukraine is just another reason for European countries to develop their own shale gas industries, Molchanov says. Those efforts have been sluggish so far; there is no commercial shale gas production anywhere in Europe today. For example, Poland, the country that’s been most active in shale gas, has only managed to drill about 50 exploration wells to date, he says. “It’s a laughably small number compared to various counties in North Dakota or Texas or Oklahoma where there can be thousands of wells drilled per year,” Molchanov says. --Christopher Werth,
New England Public Radio, 7 March 2014
Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have urged the US Congress to help them buy American natural gas and reduce their dependence on Russia by loosening US export limits. In an unusually bold step, the four countries’ ambassadors to Washington sent joint letters to top lawmakers in the Senate and the House of Representatives urging them to assist in expediting exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. “The presence of US natural gas would be much welcome in central and eastern Europe, and congressional action to expedite LNG exports to America’s allies would come at a critically important time for the region,” they wrote in letters to Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, and John Boehner, speaker of the House. --Barney Jopson, Financial Times, 8 March 2014
Apart from Poland, other [European] nations have been in no hurry. The entire nation of Hungary is sitting on what should be a prospective shale development given their long history of oil and gas. But they have been delaying shale so long that most companies have given up. Slovakia is in even an more precarious position where Russia supplies 71% of their gas, yet they too were in no rush whatsoever to even contemplate shale gas. But it’s the Czech Republic, almost 100% supplied by Russia who seem to suddenly sound hypocritical in the extreme. The US should tell the Czech Republic and those like them, to take a hike in the Carpathians. God, and the United States, should only help those who help themselves. --Nick Grealy,
No Hot Air, 9 March 2014
One silver lining—or sliver of a lining—from the Russian invasion of Crimea is that it may awaken Western Europe from its strategic slumbers. A sign of hope came Sunday when British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that European leaders may seek to buy more natural gas from the United States. --Editorial,
The Wall Street Journal, 10 March 2014
Ukrainian plans for expanding Black Sea natural gas output have been thrown into doubt by Russia’s seizure of Crimea, a region linked to most of Ukraine’s offshore developments. Promising developments include the Odessa gas field where plans call for output of more than a billion cubic metres of gas by 2015. But uncertainty clouds such plans after Russia effectively seized control of Crimea following last month’s ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich. “Their (Ukraine’s) high hopes of increasing offshore gas production may fade with the Crimea referendum,” Mikhail Korchemkin at East European Gas Analysis told Reuters. --
Reuters, 7 March 2014
Top on the list of potential venues for the next shale boom are China, Russia and Argentina, but the world’s next shale revolution likely will be in Australia, which appears to be the most attractive place for companies to pursue tight oil and gas, according to a Lux Research analysis released recently. “Australia [has] the characteristics conducive to successful commercial production, which other front-runners like Argentina, China, U.K., and Poland lack. This includes existing infrastructure, low population density in key shale plays, and citizens who welcome resource extraction through its long mining legacy,” the report said. --
BusinessDay Online, 8 March 2014
