‘Visegrad 4’ want US gas to cut dependence on Russia

[dipsydoodle]

Four central European countries have asked the US Congress to make it easier for them to import natural gas from the United States and reduce their dependence on supplies from Russia, the Czech Foreign Ministry said on Saturday (8 March).

The Visegrad 4 group including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia is looking to diversify supplies to eliminate the danger Russia could use its control of gas and oil flows to exert political pressure on the former Soviet satellite states.

Supplies were briefly disrupted in 2009 during a dispute between Russia and Ukraine, through which much of the Russian gas is piped, and central Europeans fear they could be under threat again due to an escalation of tensions between Russia and the West over Russia's seizure of Crimea.

Last year, Russia's Gazprom supplied the European Union and Turkey with a record 162 billion cubic metres of gas, of which 86 bcm went via Ukraine. Gazprom issued a thinly veiled warning on Friday that it could stop shipping gas to Ukraine over unpaid bills.

The V4 ambassadors to Washington asked House Speaker John Boehner in a letter to remove bureaucratic hurdles and make it possible to start exporting US shale gas to the region, the Czech Foreign Ministry said.


http://www.euractiv.com/energy/visegrad-4-want-us-gas-cut-depen-news-534009

[grahamhgreen]

1. It's all about the gas.

[Laelth]

3. +1. n/t

-Laelth

[postulater]

2. Give a man a gallon of gas and he'll have heat for a few hours.

Give him solar panels and he'll have power for life.

[Catherina]

4. "asked" lol. Who didn't see that coming? Frack baby frack! n/t

[malaise]

6. In other words

fugg up the USA landscape and pollute and kill your own citizens so that you can fugg up Russia.
The elites on this planet are stark raving mad.

[Catherina]

7. Shows you what our lives, health are worth to them- just labor units in a game of snakes and ladders

and now they're pissing that they refuse to recognize Crimea's referendum. Well hell, we didn't recognize the Supreme Court's coronation of the Boy King George II in 2000 either. Oh but I see, the shoe was on the other foot then. Fucking crooks and lunatics playing Risk with the world and thinking about their fat portfolios.

[ananda]

5. Free Trade™

EU Association Agreement

A free trade area with the
28 EU countries, in return
for improved democracy
-----

This is code language for
pretend democracy as a
smokescreen for resource
exploitation and wage servitude
and no regulation for extraction
of gas.

Western exceptionalism really
puts on a great show for "freedom
and democracy" but the west has
historically worked as an aggressive,
predatory, military people with a will
bent on proprietary interests. Hostile
takeovers and manipulation of foreign
governments and activists is all part of
this.

[Catherina]

8. +1. The Ukranians aren't going to take this lying down when they realize they've been had

and there won't be any trips to EuroDisneyland. Greece is still raging with protests (barely even mentioned in our media) and people attacked the Troika representatives with bottles a few weeks ago when those crooks dared show their faces.

IMF to Athens after their last visit “far too little” progress had been made and “further work is needed in Greece before the troika can return to Athens.”

European Union demands more austerity in Greece
By Robert Stevens
29 January 2014

The “troika” of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank is stepping up its demands that Greece impose devastating austerity measures already agreed and to carry out even more.

The penalty for not doing so is the withdrawal of a further loan tranche of €4.9 billion. Without the loan, Greece will default on its overall €240 billion loan agreement with the troika, as it must pay back bonds worth about €10 billion in May.

The €4.9 billion was originally scheduled to be released to Greece last year, if Greece passed a regular review of its austerity agenda. The review began last September, but has been interrupted three times by the troika. Their inspection team was due to return to Athens on January 15 and then on January 23.

...

There is still no agreement between the New Democracy/PASOK government and the troika on the size of budget cuts required to close an estimated €4.5 billion gap in the 2013-14 budget. This is despite Greece passing its 2014 budget in December, which included more than €3 billion in additional cuts.

The troika is demanding that previously-agreed cuts in the public sector be maintained, including at least 11,000 job losses this year, and that privatisations be speeded up.

...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/01/29/gree-j29.html

[grahamhgreen]

9. +1

[FarCenter]

10. How do they envision getting US gas there?

How much by what date for what investment?

[grahamhgreen]

11. LNG - liquified Natural gas via ships

[FarCenter]

12. Looks like the sort of thing you ought to be able to knock out at a few a week!

Plus the LNG liquefaction and reconversion terminals and reversing the pipelines to get it to the interior of Europe.

[joshcryer]

13. You joke but South Korea knocks one out every two weeks.