The last week of October was a tense time for the bureaucrats at Minprirody, Russia's Ministry for the Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources, and naturally for Minister Yuri Petrovich Trutnev. He went all the way to Cape Town, South Africa to participate in the work of the eighth session of the mixed intergovernmental committee for trade and economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Africa.

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From there, a mad dash to Namibia, to a meeting with Namibian President H. Pohamba and Prime Minister N. Angula, as well as with first president S. Nujoma and Minister of Mines and Energy E. Nghimtina.

And it wasn't questions

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This in from the Wall Street Journal on the somewhat disturbing, political dimensions of Russia's Nord Stream pipeline.  Approved just last week by Finland and Sweden after ecological concerns were overcome, the project is now ready to get off the ground, or rather under the ground.  For the pipeline will traverse the Baltic Sea floor to Germany, rather than crossing overground through former Eastern bloc countries; a divisive move, Alexandro Peterson suggests:[ . . . ] The Nord Stream project is part of an exclusionary agreement between Moscow and Berlin--nicknamed in circumvented Warsaw the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact," after the 1939 Soviet-Nazi deal to carve up Poland. It would have been much cheaper to build an overland pipeline ...

The US is apparently willing to give Iran more time to decide whether it will accept the UN's recent proposal on uranium enrichment abroad.  Bad news for Gazprom - the company's profits fell by 48% in the first six months of the year and its debt grew by 31% in the same period.  The company expects to meet its target of exporting 142-143 billion cubic meters of gas in 2009 as demand continues to recover.  The Russian monopoly could fine European consumers for falling short of contracted purchase volumes by 8-9 billion cubic meters of gas and Ukraine may be among them.  Lukoil has received a $300 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.   Mikhael Gorbachev urges that the new 'wall' of climate change be addressed.  China will offer $10 billion ...

Russia has reached a new record high in monthly oil production, at more than ten million barrels a day in October, maintaining its position as the world's biggest oil producer.  Rosneft is at the forefront of the increase with production from its new Vankor field in the Arctic.  Vladimir Putin has nodded approval for a Danish initiative on CO2 emissions that could replace the Kyoto Protocol, but with two caveats - that Russian interests be taken note of, ie the country's immense CO2-absorbing forests, and that the resolution be ratified by all the world's biggest economies.  Russia may increase threefold its supplies of gas to Denmark, which could see supplies reach a total of 3 billion cubic meters a year via the Nord Stream pipeline.  The Prime Minister has urged the 'stingy' EU to assist Ukraine in its difficulties ...

Russia 'counts on a controlling stake' in the three small hydropower plants it is building in Tajikistan and 'hope[s] for the Tajik side's understanding' in the matter.  The United Nations nuclear watchdog is in the process of inspecting Iran's uranium enrichment plant.  Both Iran and the U.S. are wary of falling into a trap over the nuclear question, reports the New York Times, and President Barack Obama reportedly called Dmitry Medvedev over the weekend to discuss the need to maintain Russian and U.S. unity over the issue.  The environmental safety of the Nord Stream project has been questioned by several of the transit countries, including Finland, but Vladimir Putin's meeting with his Finnish counterpart yesterday seemed to leave the schedule for completion in place.  China's oil demand is recovering at its fastest rate since June 2006.  ...

Gazprom has expressed an interest in acquiring a U.S. shale-gas producer, to access the know-how to develop similar resources domestically, says the Moscow Times.  GDF Suez has said it has discussed a 10-20% increase in its Russian gas supply with Gazprom, as part of broader negotiations to usher the French company into the Nord Stream gas project.  Electricite de France may acquire a stake in Gazprom's South Stream pipeline to supply its increasing number of power plants.  Turkey's government has apparently approved geological exploration work for South Stream in its Black Sea economic zone.  The partnership behind the Nabucco pipeline project is, says Bloomberg, 'confident' it will have enough fuel, including gas from the Azeri Shah Deniz field.  Russian oil and petrochemical exporters reported a 45% decrease in revenue in the first nine months of 2009 to ...

Luke Harding has two pieces on Russian climate change in today's Guardian: an audio report on Northern-Siberia's seasonal shifts, and a special report on the Yamal peninsula.  Rumors abound that China, Japan, Russia and France have been in secret talks on using an alternative to the dollar for oil trading, but OPEC's Secretary General says that, even if there were to be a shift, it would be a long process, and that 'tradition' would make it difficult.  Serbian oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Gazprom Neft, has signed a $100 million loan with Bank of Moscow on the back of Medvedev's Belgrade visit.  Italy, Russia, and Turkey, have signed a joint statement on the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline linking Turkey's Black Sea coast and Mediterranean coast (the New York Times has a special report today ...

I'm grateful to the commenter John who guided me toward this link for the report sponsored by the Swedish Ministry of Defence on energy security and the North European Gas Pipeline, otherwise known as Nord Stream.  I was a little too hasty and did not see the link in the New York Times story.  One reason I may have missed this one is that it was published in back in 2006 - meaning we would certainly have to add to the quoted number of times (55) that Russia has cut energy supplies to apply political pressure.  At any rate, here is the section from the paper that details the methodology of coercive energy policy.

Russia's Coercive Energy Policy in Aggregated Terms

If these cases are penetrated and put in a wider context, a pattern emerges, namely that the energy lever can

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TNK-BP is on the lookout for oil and gas production projects in Iraq as the country builds up to its second round of international bidding.  A piece in the New York Times examines how the Nord Stream pipeline could reinforce Russia's dominance over its neighbors and re-establish a divide between eastern and western Europe.  EDF has denied claims that it is dispatching radioactive waste to Russia, but rather is sending 'spent nuclear fuel that needs to be reprocessed'.  A gas deal with China would be good news for Gazprom shares, says Bloomberg.  Beijing may look to invest in oil in the Western African states of Ghana and Guinea to help build up its economy and increase energy security.  The Moscow Times reports that the government intends to begin operating a long-term power capacity market in 2011.  ...

The Financial Times enumerates Gazprom's problems: are its ambitions to increase production any more than pipe dreams?  Competition for energy reserves in the Arctic Circle could prompt friction between Russia and NATO, a new commander at the alliance has warned.  Bloomberg reports that the holder of the world's fourth-largest gas reserves, Turkmenistan, is ready to export natural gas to European collaborators if they build a pipeline across the Caspian Sea to transport the fuel.  According to Oil and Gas Eurasia, Russia needs a total of $310 billion to fully carry out its program for the analysis and exploration of its continental shelf, a deputy natural resources minister has announced.  Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has said that Russia has been invited as an observer to the December meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  Finnish environmental ...