Europe fears winter energy crisis as Russia tightens grip on oil suppliesRussia overtakes Saudi Arab

[maddezmom]

Europe fears winter energy crisis as Russia tightens grip on oil suppliesRussia overtakes Saudi Arabia as top exporter – and uncertainty continues over Ukraine pipelines

Russia's stranglehold over dwindling global energy resources was dramatically confirmed yesterday when new figures showed that the country has become the world's biggest exporter of oil.

With production in August hitting record levels, Russia toppled Saudi Arabia from the number one spot. It is already the world's largest exporter of gas, and supplies around a third of the European Union's consumption.

The news is likely to heighten unease in EU capitals over the Kremlin's tightening grip on energy reserves. There are fears of a repeat of January's debilitating gas war between Russia and Ukraine – which saw winter supplies to EU consumers cut off for weeks. Members of Opec agreed to cut oil production last year in response to the economic crisis. Moscow indicated last December that it would follow suit but instead ramped up production in the second quarter of 2009, as new fields in Siberia came on stream.

Russia produced almost 10 million barrels of oil a day in August, according to International Energy Agency figures – a post-Soviet record. Relations with other oil producing countries are likely to come under increasing strain, since Russia is now profiting from Opec production cuts.

more:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/13/russia-oil-exports-eu

[knitter4democracy]

1. Russia's going to expect some changes, then.

This should be interesting.

[NNadir]

2. Last winter was a disaster for nations in Southern Europe like Bulgaria that...

...got caught up in the Ukraine - Russia economic war.

Don't worry though. The anti-nuke Gazprom executive Gerhard Schroeder, former "Chancellor of Gazprom Germany," um, I mean "Chancellor of Germany" has secured Russian sources of gas through pipelines.

I note that the former Chancellor couldn't give a rat's ass about Bulgaria, whose energy infrastructure he sought to destroy while Chancellor. Nor does he give a rat's ass about the disposal of wastes, including dangerous carbon dioxide, that his new owners generate.