30 junho
2014, Правда.Ру,
Pravda.ru http://www.pravda.ru (Россия, Rússia)
Nunca foi segredo que o prêmio para quem
controle a Ucrânia é a posse da vasta infraestrutura do gasoduto que parte da
Rússia e chega à Europa. Mas, dado que todo o gás pertence, em primeiro lugar,
à [empresa russa] Gazprom, realmente não importa se Kiev tinha posse do gás que
enchiam os dutos que levavam o gás para a Europa; nem se, como é hoje o caso, a
Ucrânia seria apenas um duto de transferência do gás totalmente russo, entregue
a países europeus, sem que gás algum permanecesse na Ucrânia, hoje destroçada
pela guerra civil.
Afinal
de contas, a Ucrânia absolutamente não consegue mais comprar gás russo, porque
não tem crédito nem dinheiro para pagar adiantado; mas, se roubar gás destinado
à Alemanha e outros países, a Ucrânia estará simplesmente antagonizando seus
novos 'melhores amigos' na OTAN, os quais são, todos, clientes da [russa]
Gazprom.
Cáspio (principalmente do Azerbaijão e do Turcomenistão) e atravessaria a
Turquia, antes de emergir na Bulgária, de onde seguiria a via europeia do Ramo
Sul até a central austríaca de distribuição e dali adiante.[3]Como a Agência Reuters noticiou,[7] "os principais executivos da Gazprom russa e da OMV austríaca selaram o acordo para construir um trecho do gasoduto Ramo Sul até a Áustria, país que firmemente defendeu o projeto ante a oposição que lhe fez a Comissão Europeia."
O projeto pôs a indústria europeia contra os políticos da UE e dividiu os apoiadores do Ramo Sul - gasoduto que se estende da Alemanha por toda a Europa Central e Sudeste da Europa pesadamente dependentes da Rússia - dos demais estados-membros da UE.
Em visita de trabalho de um dia a Viena, que mereceu críticas na UE, Putin falou dos laços comerciais muito estreitos que ligam a Rússia à Áustria, o primeiro país europeu que assinou, em 1968, acordos de longo termo de fornecimento de gás com Moscou.
Disse que a Áustria é parceiro "importante e confiável" para a Rússia, que é o terceiro maior parceiro comercial da Áustria fora da UE depois de EUA e Suíça.
O presidente austríaco Heinz Fischer também defendeu o projeto do [gasoduto] Ramo Sul: "Ninguém conseguiu me explicar - nem consigo explicar ao povo austríaco - por que um gasoduto que corta a União Europeia e vários países-membros da OTAN deveria ser proibido de andar por 50 km em território austríaco."
Ah! Para registrar: o presidente da Áustria
disse também que é "contra sanções contra Moscou" (para o caso de a
Europa tentar aprovar por unanimidade sanções contra a Rússia a propósito da
Ucrânia).
****
***
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-24/putin-scores-another-historic-victory-austria-signs-south-stream-pipeline-deal-defia
----------------
BRICS ------/PUTIN
SCORES ANOTHER HISTORIC VICTORY: AUSTRIA SIGNS SOUTH STREAM PIPELINE DEAL IN
DEFIANCE OF EUROPE
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-24/putin-scores-another-historic-victory-austria-signs-south-stream-pipeline-deal-defia/news
As the war of words
between Europe and Russia has escalated, one of the outcomes that has emerged
is that just like in false flag war over Syria, the Ukraine war was about the
simplest possible thing, and yet so very complicate: a gas pipeline. Of course,
it was never a secret that the prize in controlling Ukraine was possession of
the vast pipeline infrastructure that left Russia and entered Europe, but since
it was all Gazprom's gas in the first place, it didn't really matter if Kiev
had possession of the gas as it transits to Europe, or if, as the case is now,
Ukraine is merely a transit hub with all Russian gas delivered to European
countries and none of it staying in the civil war torn country. After all as of
this moment Ukraine can't afford any Russian gas, and if it siphons off any of
the product destined for Germany and beyond it would simply antagonize its new
NATO best friends, who also happen to be Gazprom clients.
No, the pipeline that has emerged with a starring role
in the Ukraine conflict has nothing to do with Ukraine, but is a pipeline that
crosses several hundred kilometers south of Ukraine - the South Stream project, which leaves the Russian black sea coast south of
Crimea, crosses the black sea, and traverses Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and ends
up in the gas hub in Baumgarten, Austria from where it proceeds to all points in central
Europe, mostly Germany.
The project, which was conceived in 2007, was meant
explicitly to bypass Ukraine, and to be an alternative to the now mothballed Nabucco gaspipeline which, with the backing of the US and Europe,
would have taken Caspian gas (mainly Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan) and traverse
Turkey before emerging in Bulgaria, and then followed the European path of the
South Stream into the Austrian hub and beyond.
MAPA GASODUTO
Not surprisingly, it was the key transit hub of the
South Stream, Bulgaria, that started making problems for Putin even as he
succeeded in trumping Nabucco (when in June 2013 the CEO of Austrian energy
giant OMV, Gerhard Roiss, announced the project as "over" after the
Turkish Shah Deniz consortium chose theTrans-Adriatic Pipieline over Nabucco as a gas export route which would supply
Italy instead of Austria).
Recall that it was
in January, two months before the
Ukraine government was overthrown that the prime minister of Bulgaria - a
country that has a very distinguished love/hate relationship with Russia (a
relationship which the US would love to make more "hate") - Plamen
Oresharski, surprisingly ordered a halt to work on the South Stream, on the recommendation of the EU. The decision was announced
after his talks with US senators.
"At this time there is a request from the
European Commission, after which we've suspended the current works, I ordered
it," Oresharski told journalists after meeting with John McCain, Chris
Murphy and Ron Johnson during their visit to Bulgaria on Sunday. "Further
proceedings will be decided after additional consultations with Brussels."
At the time McCain, commenting on the situation, said
that "Bulgaria should solve the South Stream problems in collaboration
with European colleagues," adding that in the current situation they would
want "less
Russian involvement" in
the project.
"America has decided that it wants to put itself
in a position where it excludes anybody it doesn't like from countries where it
thinks it might have an interest, and there is no economic rationality in this
at all. Europeans are very pragmatic, they are looking for cheap energy
resources - clean energy resources, and Russia can supply that.But the
thing with the South Stream is that it doesn't fit with the politics of the
situation,"Ben Aris, editor of Business New Europe told
RT.
It was also in January when EU authorities ordered
Bulgaria to suspend construction on its link of the pipeline, which is planned
to transport Russian natural gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and onward
to western Europe. Brussels
wants the project frozen, pending a decision on whether it violates the EU
competition regulations on a single energy market. It believes South Stream does
not comply with the rules prohibiting energy producers from also controlling
pipeline access.
Therein, of course, lies the rub, because as Europe
has learned the hard way so many times, its overrliance on Russia for both the
production and the transit of gas means that it has absolutely no leverage over
the Kremlin - something recent events in Ukraine have only confirmed.
Putin, earlier today, merely cemented the reality that
it is not so much about who controls the energy transit pipelines, but whose
influence controls Europe: America's or Russia's. "The US
opposes the Russian South Stream gas pipeline project because it wants to
supply gas to Europe itself, President
Putin said on Tuesday. He called the situation an "ordinary competitive
struggle."
“They do everything to disrupt this contract. There is
nothing unusual here. This is an ordinary competitive struggle. In the course
of this competition, political tools are also being used,” the Russian president said after holding talks with
his Austrian counterpart, President Heinz Fischer, in Vienna.
"We are in talks with our contract partners, not
with third parties. That our US friends are unhappy about South Stream, well,
they were unhappy in 1962 too, when the gas-for-pipes project with Germany was
beginning. Now they are unhappy too, nothing has changed, except the fact that
they want to supply to the European market themselves," Putin stated.
Should this happen, American gas “will not
be cheaper than Russian gas – pipe gas is always cheaper than liquefied gas,”
Putin stressed.
* * *
Which in turn brings us
to the culmination of the political struggle over the South Stream, when
earlier today, in yet another coup for the Kremlin, one of the most stable and
respected European countries, AAA-rated Austria gave its final approval to the
"controversial" Russian gas pipeline project early Tuesday, defying EU officials and welcoming Russian
President Vladimir Putin to the neutral country that has been a long-standing
energy customer for Moscow.
As Reuters reports, "the chief executives of Russia's Gazprom and
Austria's OMV sealed the deal to build a branch of the South Stream gas
pipeline to Austria, a staunch defender of the project in the face of
opposition from the European Commission."
In other words, one short month after Putin concluded the
Holy Grail deal with Beijing, he not only managed
to formalize his conquest of Europe's energy needs with yet another pipeline, one which completely bypasses Ukraine
(for numerous reasons but mostly one: call it a Plan B), but scored a massive
political victory by creating a fissure in the heart of the Eurozone, after
Austria openly defied its European peers and sided with Putin.
Needless to say, the European Commission is furious,
and is digging in its heels saying South Stream does not comply with EU
competition law because it offers no access to third parties. South Stream
also, as noted above, counters the EU's policy of diversifying supply sources
to reduce dependence on Russia.
But OMV CEO Gerhard Roiss, in a stunning moment of
realpolitik clarity and admission that when it comes to the energy future of
Europe, Putin is more important than Mario Draghi, told a news conference after
the signing: "Europe needs Russian gas. Europe will need more
Russian gas in future because European gas production is falling ... I think
the European Union understands this, too."
Of course, they do. The
only issue is they don't want to admit it because doing so seals Europea's fate
as a vassal energy state of Russia. As for Europe's pipedream, pardon the pun,
alternative of receiving LNG from the US, it was none other than Cnehiere CEO
Charif Souki who said in April, when asked if Cheniere’s terminal could rescue
eastern European countries from their dependence on Russia, that "It’s
flattering to be talked about like this, but it’s all nonsense. It’s so much
nonsense that I can’t believe anybody really believes it.”
They don't, but it's
all politics. And in politics it is all about wielding power, or submitting to
it. Austria did the latter today, and by defecting on its European peers, it
may have started a process that leads to the splintering of the Eurozone
itself, with none other than Vladimir Putin once again pulling the strings.
The project has pitted European industry against
politicians in Brussels, and divided South Stream supporters -which
stretch from Germany through the heavily Russia-dependent central and
southeastern Europe - from other EU member states.
On a one-day working visit to Vienna that drew some
criticism in the EU, Putin spoke of close business ties to Austria, the first
western European country to sign, in 1968, long-term gas supply deals with
Moscow.
He called Austria an "important and reliable"
partner for Russia, which is Austria's third-biggest non-EU trading partner
after the United States and Switzerland.
Austrian President Heinz Fischer also defended the
South Stream project, saying: "No one can explain to me - and I can't explain
to the Austrian people - why a pipeline that crosses EU and NATO countries
can't go 50 km into Austria."
Oh and for the record,
the Austrian president said "He said he opposed sanctions against
Moscow"... just in case the next time Europe dares to pass off any Russian
sanctions over Ukraine decision as unanimous.
And speaking of Ukraine, things got downright bizarre
in Vienna when the head of Austria's chamber of commerce reminded Putin that
part of Ukraine had belonged to Austria in 1914. "What is that supposed to mean? What are
you proposing?" Putin
quipped, eliciting laughter from the business elite. Next thing you know Putin
will be joking about annexing Hungary...
And there you have it, just in case it was still
unclear: what is happening in Ukraine is all a big joke to the power brokers in
Europe, the "business elite" - the decision has long since been made
that Putin will see no
objection by
said elite to whatever his intentions with regard to the irrelevant and civil
war-torn country are. Aside, of course, from the token CIA and US theater fit
simply for lower common denominator consumption.
The joint South Stream Austria project will be 50
percent owned by Gazprom – Russia's largest gas producer – and 50 percent owned
by Austria’s OMV Group, the country’s largest oil and gas company.
Austria's president Fischer stated that if anyone
criticizes Austria, they
should also criticize other member countries and their companies.
“I suppose that there will be no such moment when such
a country as Austria will not be holding talks with a partner, which has
intense relations with us, and will not be ready to negotiate with it,” the Austrian leader said.
“We know such a dialogue does not contradict any
EU decision,” he added. What he meant is that nobody in Europe
can tell Putin what to do.
* * *
As for the logistical issues of the pipeline, now that
the agreement has been signed, they will all be resolved in due course: Gazprom
chief Alexei Miller said earlier he was in weekly if not daily contact with
European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger about winning approval for the
South Stream project.
"We solve problems as they come up, and now the
problem of construction of the pipeline is to be solved," Miller said.
The pipeline deal does not address the question of
third-party access, which is required by EU law to prevent the owner of an
energy source from monopolising its distribution channels. OMV's Roiss said the
issue must be negotiated with Brussels. Roiss said the Austrian part of
the pipeline, which is planned to be built in 2016 and deliver its first gas
supplies around the start of 2017, would comply fully with European law.
Gazprom and OMV said they would split the 200 million
euro ($272 million) costs of building the 50-km (31- mile) Austrian stretch of
South Stream, which in total will be 2,446 km long. The total cost of the South
Stream pipeline is $40 billion.
At the end of the day it's only capex: money that is
more than returned to the investor in the long-run. America may remember capex
- it's what companies did before they pushed financial engineering beyond the
edge, all in the pursuit of short-term capital appreciation gains. And if
Gazprom can't fund it, we are confident China would be delighted to invest in
the project by buying a few billion Renminbi-denominated bonds.
* * *
So congratulations to Putin: today he merely further
cemented his status as Europe's default energy provider. But not only that. As
Reuters noted some
politicians have warned that Putin may try to exploit divisions between friendly
EU states, such as neutral Austria with its traditionally good ties to Moscow,
and those like Britain that want to take a harder line.
"Obviously ... Putin wants to split the European
Union. That's nothing new. That's what the Russians always try to do when they
are in a corner," Swedish Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt told Austrian broadcaster ORF on Monday.
Well, Mr. Bildt, Russia certainly succeeded in sowing
the seeds of even more discord in the European Union, whose most stable country just sided with Putin and told all of its
European "partners", Merkel and Cameron included, a bigfuck you.
As for yourcompletely
wrong remark
about just who is "in the
corner" we will let it slip: after all, as that other European career
politician Jean-Claude Juncker taught us, when it
gets serious, you have to lie.
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