MOSCOW, September 27 (RIA Novosti) Global players' energy interests depend on situation in Myanmar/ U.S. sanctions against Iran affect Russia/ Turkmenistan demands a rise in gas prices/ Nord Stream: back to square one/ Donald Trump tries the Russian market for size
Kommersant
Global players' energy interests depend on situation in Myanmar
The UN Security Council is to adopt a draft resolution on Myanmar, where security forces launched a crackdown in Yangon Wednesday following large-scale demonstrations by Buddhist monks nine days ago. Streets were blocked off as police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons.
The United States, Britain and France advocate tough sanctions, whereas Russia and China say the situation in Myanmar is its internal affair.
According to experts, if the military regime falls there, this will damage Russian and Chinese interests.
There is a good reason behind the global powers' interest in the future of the military regime in Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia crucial for many countries, above all China. Beijing's energy security may become largely dependent on Myanmar in the next few years, because its explored gas reserves are estimated at 2.46 trillion cubic meters, and crude reserves at 3.2 billion barrels.
China's larges companies - CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC - have development licenses for Myanmar deposits. In January this year, China National Petroleum Corporation and Myanmar's Ministry of Energy signed a contract to build a 2,380-km (1,479-mile) oil pipeline to link the deepwater port of Sittwe to China's Kunming.
In April, a Chinese commission on development and reform approved the allocation of more than $1 billion for the construction of a parallel gas pipeline with a capacity of 56 billion cubic meters.
The two pipelines will enable tankers from the Middle East and Africa to unload oil in Sittwe, without entering the narrow Malacca Strait.
This is why the Chinese leaders have been pandering the Myanmar regime, supplying it with weapons and allegedly planning to set up its naval bases in that country.
Russia also has business interests in Myanmar. In May, nuclear equipment export monopoly Atomstroyexport signed an agreement to build a nuclear research center in Myanmar.
Zarubezhneft, Russia's leading foreign trade company in the oil and gas sector, natural gas producer Itera, and Silver Wave Sputnik Petroleum, connected with the government of the south Russian republic of Kalmykia, are producing oil at Myanmar's offshore deposits.
Myanmar bought 15 Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters for about $150 million in 2001, and is now negotiating with Russia's state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport the establishment of an air defense system comprising Tor-M1 and Buk-M1-2 missile systems.
Alexei Kirichenko, a leading Myanmar expert at the Institute of Asia and Africa at Moscow State University, said: "If democratic forces come to power [in Myanmar], they will most probably adjust their course to the United States. Beijing's interests there are guaranteed by a huge Chinese Diaspora and closeness to China, whereas Moscow cannot expect to maintain cooperation [with Myanmar] at the present levels."
Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Gazeta.ru
U.S. sanctions against Iran affect Russia
The paranoia experienced by the United States when it comes to Iran has increased. The American establishment became further detached from reality when U.S. Congress passed the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act proving Washington's reluctant to face objective facts.
The United States, which understands that the Iranian problem cannot be solved by force due to the possible international repercussions and the unlikely chance of victory, wants to revert to all out economic pressure tactics, which will affect countries cooperating with Tehran.
The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act was backed by several Arab countries, which do not want Iran to grow stronger and to become a regional nuclear power.
Russia, which is one of Tehran's main economic partners, will also be affected because Congress wants to block Moscow's efforts to provide political support to Iran and to implement bilateral cooperation projects.
Section 6 of the Act called Russian Nuclear Cooperation stipulates political and economic measures that would limit Moscow's competitive potential in the run-up to national parliamentary and presidential elections.
Alexei Malashenko, member of the Moscow Carnegie Center's expert council, said it was difficult to say whether the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act would prove effective. He said Russia and China would have to rely on their own resources if the bill were enacted, and would not implement additional energy projects with the United States.
Malashenko said he doubted the bill's effectiveness because it would facilitate closer cooperation between Moscow, Beijing and Tehran.
Kommersant
Turkmenistan demands a rise in gas prices
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov started his first visit to the United States by mentioning tensions in gas talks with Russia.
According to unofficial data, these tensions were down to Turkmenistan's desire to increase gas prices for Gazprom by 50%, to $150 per 1,000 cubic meters, contrary to current agreements.
If Russia agrees to raise the price, Ukraine will be the first to suffer.
Dushanbe explained its motives by Gazprom's plans to raise gas prices for Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary and Belarus.
Gas prices are also the stumbling block hindering talks on the construction of the Caspian gas pipeline across Russia. The leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed a memorandum of intent on the project last May, and planned to sign a binding four-party agreement (the fourth party was to be Uzbekistan) by September.
Gazprom has reasons to insist on the old gas prices. In 2006, its CEO, Alexei Miller, signed an agreement with the late president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, on the acquisition of up to 162 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan at $100 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2006-2009.
But the new Turkmen president is rallying allies against Russia. During his meeting with Britain's Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks last week, he invited British companies to produce energy resources at Turkmenistan's offshore Caspian deposits, and to establish oil processing facilities in the republic.
Berdymukhammedov also openly reaffirmed his predecessor's agreements on gas supplies to China and on allowing it to launch gas production in Turkmenistan.
Russia will either have to put political pressure on Turkmenistan, or agree to raise gas prices, just as it agreed in August 2006 to raise prices from $65 to $100. However, it will be not Gazprom, but Ukraine who will feel the effects of any decision, because it buys all of Turkmen gas acquired by Russia through RosUkrEnergo, a Russian-Ukrainian consortium set up to facilitate the delivery of Turkmen gas to Ukraine and Europe.
A source with close ties in RosUkrEnergo said that if prices for Turkmenistan's natural gas were raised, Ukraine's other gas suppliers - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - would also demand a price rise.
Gazeta.ru
Nord Stream: back to square one
Estonia's official refusal to allow Nord Stream AG to lay the North European gas pipeline across its waters, means the pipeline operator has taken up its original plan of stretching the pipe along the Finnish seabed. The Finns despite the environmental difficulties want to make some capital out of the project.
Despite the refusal, the undersea pipeline will go ahead all the same. Europe needs Nord Stream, said Irina Vasilyeva, a spokesperson for the operator company. "We are sure that all difficulties will be resolved through dialogue between the interested parties," she said.
According to Vasilyeva, the Estonian option had been examined on the suggestion of the Finnish authorities. The Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said that if the seabed was disturbed during construction, it might have a negative effect on fish stocks and involve the entire Gulf of Finland. With the amount of work involved in laying the pipe along an undulating bed in the Finnish sector, sea currents could undergo changes, making both the gas pipeline and its protective layer geo-technically unstable. In engineering terms, it would be simpler and more cost-effective to lay the pipe along the seabed south of Finland, across Estonian and Danish waters.
Denmark has endorsed and agreed to the project. "But since Estonia has not permitted underwater research of the seabed in its commercial waters, everything is now reverting to the original decision to build a gas pipeline in Finland's territorial waters," said the spokeswoman. Especially since the Finnish government said it was willing for the pipe to be laid in its waters shortly before the Estonian authorities came up with their refusal.
In experts' opinion, the laying of a gas pipeline along the Finnish seabed will no doubt entail additional costs, but not more than $1 billion.
Estonia's decision is unlikely to trigger off a "gas war" between the countries involved. Analysts are sure that the refusal will not affect Russian gas supplies to Estonia.
Konstantin Cherepanov, an expert with KIT Finance investment bank, said Gazprom had long since gone over to European export prices in dealing with CIS and Baltic countries, because any failure to fulfill obligations, cut back deliveries or anything else could dent the company's image in European eyes.
Vedomosti
Donald Trump tries the Russian market for size
American billionaire and real estate developer Donald J. Trump has registered the Trump trademark in Russia, in the areas of design, construction and real estate. The entrepreneur's representatives say that the trademark was registered in case he decided to enter the Russian market.
According to Alexander Isayev, a patent agent at Soyuzpatent, the company that helped register the trademark, Trump has the trademark Trump International Hotel & Tower currently, with the Trump Town trademark being renewed until 2016.
Trump is one of the most famous entrepreneurs in the United States. According to Forbes, his net worth is $2.9 billion, but he estimates it at $6 billion. The Trump Organization, with $10.4 billion in annual income in 2006, according to Hoover's, currently is involved in elite real estate projects in the U.S., Mexico, Panama, South Korea, the Dominican Republic and the United Arabic Emirates. The company also operates hotels, golf clubs, casinos and restaurants. Trump is the producer and host of the U.S. reality show, The Apprentice. The winner of the popular TV show can become a senior manager in one of Trump's companies.
The Trump Tower in Manhattan, with apartments, shopping centers and offices, is one of the billionaire's most famous ventures. The 68-story skyscraper was built in 1983 and was the tallest structure of its kind in New York at the time. Currently a 206 square meter apartment in Trump Tower sells for $4.2 million, a bit less than the average flat in Ostozhenka on Moscow's "golden mile."
Trump was interested in the Russian market in the mid-1990s, says Yelena Aleksandrova, marketing director of Midland Development, which is building the $500 million Trump Tower in Toronto. Among other things, the tycoon negotiated with the Moscow government to reconstruct the Moskva and Rossiya hotels. It is very important to preserve the original architecture and well-known brand for the city's development, said Aleksandrova.
Bernard Diamond, Trump's representative, says that the Trump Organization does not plan to enter the Russian market in the near future. The trademarks were registered in case he decides to do so.
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