Russia Claims Ukraine’s Black Sea Oil And Gas Bounty
Russia’s annexation of Crimea has totally upended Kiev’s plans for Black Sea and Sea of Azov offshore oil and natural gas production. Before the peninsula’s March 16 independence referendum, followed two days later by Russian annexation, Ukraine’s state-owned Chornomornaftogaz (“Chernomorneftegaz” in Russian) owned 17 hydrocarbon fields, including 11 natural gas fields, four gas condensate fields, and two ... Read more
What Went Wrong? Russia Sanctions, EU, and the Way Out
Without a diplomatic solution, the sanctions against Russia will have an adverse impact on its economy, but could also push Europe to a triple-dip recession. Last March – after months of escalation in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine – President Obama initiated sanctions against Russia in financial services, energy, defense and related materials sectors. New ... Read more
Who Needs Russia? Ukraine Will Destroy Itself With New Gas Tax
Ukraine doesn’t need Russia to take it down—Kiev is doing fine destroying itself, most recently with a new tax code that doubles taxes for private gas producers and promises to irreparably cripple new investment in the energy sector at a time when reform and outside investment were the country’s only hope. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ... Read more
5 Things Ukraine Must Do to Become Energy Independent
There are exactly five things Kiev must do to become energy independent and disentangle itself from the Russian-driven geopolitical gas war: 1. Sell its pipeline system (most importantly); 2. Sell the remaining state interest in oil and gas company Ukrnafta; 3. Aggressively farm out as brown-field developments areas licensed by state-owned Ukrgazproduction; 4. Develop additional ... Read more
French Banks Play Russian Roulette
In the fourth quarter of last year, with tensions rising between Russia and the West over Ukraine, U.S., German, UK, and Swedish banks aggressively dialed down their credit exposures in Russia. But as the graphic above shows, French banks, which have by far the highest exposures to Russia, barely touched theirs. At $50 billion, this ... Read more
The Sanctions Against Russia Do Bite: But Are They Having Their Intended Impact?
Often, the problem with many policy actions employed to influence the economy is their unintended consequences. In the case of economic sanctions, it is not always easy to tell whether half a success is any better than a failure. On March 21, 2014, under the new sanctions regime, both Visa and MasterCard froze the card ... Read more