Russian Oil and Gas Industry: News #3

Hole wrote:The Eastern Europeans especially might find it impossible to ingratiate themselves back into the Russian world; the Russians have had their fill of them and their duplicitousness

Karl Haushofer wrote:I fully expect Russia to make a new transit deal with Ukraine for another 20 years.

Karl Haushofer wrote:

Neither is Russia ever going to get any payments from Ukraine either (even if Ukraine again starts to “buy” gas directly from Russia as Putin wants).

Rasisuki Nebia wrote:Kiyv wants another 15 years ? oh is that right, but here i thought a Russian invasion was imminent?
When NS2 comes online which is only a matter of time, Kiyv can buy go and beg the Europeans for that sweet but this time expensive Russian gas .

I feel for Ukrainian and Russian-Ukrainians people living under that regime that elected that clown thinking he'll mend relations with Russia, then again it's the entire Ukrainian system that's compromised ...

Karl Haushofer wrote: now that Nord Stream II is dead and buried.

kvs wrote:Russian officials are idiots.   Instead of whimpering like bitches about how "wrong" US economic terrorism is, they should be
loudly trumpeting that they do not need to sell gas to Europe.   This has nothing to do with alternate consumers, this
reflects basic economics.   The $30 billion dollars Gazprom gets from Europe gas sales can be put on ice for years with
token impact on Russia's tax base.   The loss of any taxes can be compensated for by additional export tariffs on products
such as Russian wheat, minerals, and import tariffs on NATzO manufactured goods.

Karl Haushofer wrote:To sum up this Russia vs. Moldova gas situation.

1. Earlier this year the previous contract between Moldova and Russia expired.

2. Gazprom wanted a new contract with a market price. Gazprom also wanted that Moldova pays its remaining debt from previous contract to Gazprom before new contract is signed.

3. Moldova refused Gazprom's request and accused Russia of blackmail. Russia was also accused by the West for abusing its dominant position as a gas supplier.

4. Due to this Moldova was facing an acute energy crisis.

5. So Vladimir Putin decided to intervene and he instructed Gazprom to sign a new contract with Moldova with a big discount. Moldova was not forced to pay back its remaining debt from the previous contract either before it signed a new contract with a discount.

5. And so Moldova got a nice gift from Russia in a situation where Russia had all the leverage and Moldova had nothing. You'd think that Moldovans would be grateful to Vladimir Putin, but no.

6. And now, after receiving this very generous gift from Russia, Moldova is still refusing to pay both the remaining debt of the previous contract and the gas received under the new contract with a big price discount.

The only rational party here is Moldova. They are abusing Russian president's childish and naive views about the former Soviet Union. They are going to keep their integration with the West while happily receiving free gas from Russia.

Of course Moldova will never be accepted as part of the Western core, but they could be something like Romania (an EU and NATO member) in the future. Moldova's political and economic elite have no desire to ally itself with Russia. The older generation with Soviet nostalgia is dying out so that ship has sailed.

But of course Moldova will continue to happily benefit from Russia's generosity as long as it lasts (as long as Putin is in power).