Essay
Abstract: The share of non-Gazprom gas producers in the Russian domestic gas market has been rising for the last decade. This paper examines this trend in the Russian domestic natural gas sector giving special attention to the field development and business strategy of the challengers of Gazprom such as Novatek, Rosneft and LUKOIL. Their market share is rising due to the high cost of Gazproms’s greenfield developments on the one hand, and their effective company strategy on the other. However this would not be enough for their success without the growing political backing of the Kremlin. All this could lead in the medium term to the transformation of the Russian domestic gas market, and in longer run maybe also to that of the natural gas export policies and structure of Russia.
Keywords: Russia, Gazprom, Novatek, natural gas, non-Gazprom gas producer
Abstract: Energy has become one of the most debated topics in the current relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. One of the most important effect of the Ukraine crisis is that it has revealed that the former political cooperation between the two actors has failed to solve the underlying problems in which political and energy-conflicts are inexorably intertwined. The aim of this paper is to understand, why the cooperation failed to solve this mainly technological problem in a neutral way, what were the signs of the failure and what were the answers given by the two parties to the new challenges of the changing political and energy relations, and the probable consequences of their efforts.
Keywords: European Union, Russia, energy, gas and oil supplies, cooperation
Rewiew
Abstract: This review intends to introduce the book ‘The Caspian Sea Chessboard: Geopolitical, geo-strategic and geo-economic analysis’, edited by Carlo Frappi and Azad Garibov. The volume aims “to address the relevance of the Caspian Sea in the contemporary international and regional systems, analysing both soft and hard security issues and threats emerging from the basin, as well as the policies of littoral and extra-regional actors” (p. 18). From the aspect of energy policy, the book deals with two especially important issues among others: Firstly, with the question of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which influences the division of offshore natural resources, and secondly, with energy security, which does not only include the protection of the extended pipeline systems and processing plants, but the matter is also linked to the diversification of energy sources from the aspect of Europe and to the role of littoral states in this question.
Keywords: book review, Caspian Sea, energy, Azerbaijan, geopolitics