Gas – Page 2 – Infinite Unknown

New Mexico Declares State of Emergency: Tens of Thousands of People Without Natural Gas Service Due Statewide Shortages

February 5, 2011 by Infinite

New Mexican Governor Susana Martinez makes announcements regarding gas shortages from the Emergency Operating Center on the National Guard Base just south of Santa Fe, N.M., on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Secretary of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Michael Duvall, left, and Major General Kenny C. Montoya, right, look on. Martinez has declared a state of emergency as thousands of New Mexico residents lost natural gas service due to the bitter cold. Martinez sent all nonessential state workers home for the day Thursday, and urged all residents to turn down their thermostats, bundle up and shut off appliances they don’t need for the next 24 hours. (AP Photo/The New Mexican, Natalie Guillén)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—With tens of thousands of people across New Mexico without natural gas service, Gov. Susana Martinez on Thursday declared a state of emergency, ordered all government offices be shut down Friday and urged schools to “strongly consider” remaining closed for the day.

Demand has soared because of extremely cold weather across the state since Tuesday. New Mexico Gas Company said rolling blackouts in West Texas also impeded the delivery of natural gas into New Mexico.

Martinez declared a state of emergency for all of New Mexico, urging residents to turn down their thermostats, bundle up and shut off appliances they don’t need for the next 24 hours.

She later announced all state operations not providing critical services would be closed Friday to decrease the strain on energy resources throughout the state.

“Due to statewide natural gas shortages, I have ordered all government agencies that do not provide essential services to shut down and all nonessential employees to stay home” on Friday, Martinez said after meeting with public safety personnel in Albuquerque.

“I have also encouraged all schools that have not already announced closures to strongly consider doing so,” she said.

GASLAND Trailer 2010 (Documentary)

January 30, 2011January 30, 2011 by Infinite

GASLAND – (2010) Directed by Josh Fox. Winner of Special Jury Prize – Best US Documentary Feature – Sundance 2010. Screening at Cannes 2010.

It is happening all across America and now in Europe and Africa as well – rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from a multinational energy conglomerate wanting to lease their property. The Reason? In America, the company hopes to tap into a huge natural gas reservoir dubbed the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground—a hydraulic drilling process called fracking—and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower.

But what comes out of the ground with that natural gas? How does it affect our air and drinking water? GASLAND is a powerful personal documentary that confronts these questions with spirit, strength, and a sense of humor. When filmmaker Josh Fox receives his cash offer in the mail, he travels across 32 states to meet other rural residents on the front lines of fracking. He discovers toxic streams, ruined aquifers, dying livestock, brutal illnesses, and kitchen sinks that burst into flame. He learns that all water is connected and perhaps some things are more valuable than money.

UK Gas Supplies at 5-Year Low For Early January After Coldest December Since 1890

January 11, 2011January 11, 2011 by Infinite

National Grid reports that gas supplies have fallen dramatically after coldest December since 1890

Demand for gas soared amid freezing weather last month. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The amount of gas kept in storage in the UK is at its lowest level in five years for so early in the winter, according to National Grid.

Last month, was the coldest December since 1890, and the UK’s gas storage facilities, which are among the smallest in Europe, are already more than half empty as they cope with record demand. Domestic supplies of gas have also been exported to the continent via the Interconnector under-sea pipeline, because prices are higher there than in the UK.

As of Friday, the UK had enough gas in storage to meet in total about five and a half days’ consumption, given average winter temperatures, although storage facilities can release only a fraction of this each day. These facilities – mostly old gas fields such as Centrica’s Rough reservoir off the coast of Yorkshire – have in the past run down gradually during the winter and restocked over the spring and summer. But analysts said that suppliers have withdrawn stocks much earlier this year, with almost two months of the winter left to run.

Who is blowing up Iran’s gas pipelines?

August 19, 2010August 19, 2010 by Infinite

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad points during the inauguration of Iran’s fourth gas refinery in the port town of Assalouyeh, south of Tehran, in 2008 (AP Photo/ISNA, Ruhollah Vahdati)

In the past few weeks Iran’s gas infrastructure, which is central to the country’s energy requirements, has been hit by a series of unexplained explosions.

The series of mysterious explosions began at the end of July when the state-owned Tehran Times reported that a pipeline carrying gas from Iran to Turkey had exploded near the eastern Turkish town of Dogubayazit. Iranian officials blamed the blast on Kurdish rebels.

This was followed earlier this month by reports in the Iranian press of an explosion in a gas pipeline on the outskirts of Tabriz. A few days later there was a more serious incident on August 4 when five people were killed when another gas pipeline exploded on the outskirts of the Pardis petrochemical plant. The explosion took place just a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had made an official visit to the complex. Finally, on August 10, a pipeline exploded in the city of Masjed Sleiman.

Polish President killed over opposing landmark Gazprom deal?

April 25, 2010 by Infinite

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is set to seal a key gas deal with Russia’s Gazprom days after the death of opponents to the contract – including Polish President Lech Kaczynski – in a mysterious plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, reports Polskaweb.

Under the contract worth an estimated 100 billion dollars – the biggest business deal in the history of Poland – Poland is to increase its imports of Russian gas.

The contract to buy gas from Gazprom until 2037 will make Poland 100% dependent on Russian gas for the next 28 years in spite of the announcement of the discovery of huge gas reserves in Poland in April just before the memorial service in Katyn, Smolensk.

Poland could have 3 trillion cubic metres of reserves of shale gas, enough to satisfy domestic demand for more than 200 years.

Europe’s gas reserves could jump 47% as a result of Poland’s gas reserves, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

Poland currently consumes 14bn cubic metres of gas a year and imports more than 70% of it from Russia.

The development of its own shale gas deposits could have allowed Poland to satisfy all its gas needs, and even export ga, becoming a competitor to Gazprom. Shale gas already accounts for up to 20% of US natural gas production.

President Lech Kaczynski and many other opposition party politicians, who were killed in a plane crash in Smolensk, had opposed the Gazprom deal.

Earlier this year, Russian energy giant Gazprom and Polish gas monopoly, PGNiG, signed agreements extending gas deliveries until 2045. Under one of the agreements, Gazprom gas supplies to Poland will increase from 8 to 11 billion cubic meters per year and the current agreement will be extended by 15 years, through 2037.

But the deal was put on ice after the opposition party had threatened legal action over the contract which was so disadvantageous to Poland’s economic and energy interests, alleging „lobbying” (bribery?).

Kaczynski said that he was „deeply worried” about the contract which would have made Poland even more dependent on Russian gas for 28 years.

It was also argued that Poland already had a contract with Russia until 2022, and there was no need to rush into a 30 year contract.

UK: Gas supply rationed as temperature drops to -21C

January 10, 2010 by Infinite

The same is happening in China:

– Freezing Beijing rations gas supply (Financial Times)

– Chinese cities not ready for harsh winter (Xinhua):

Seven provinces and regions in eastern and central China have reported power rationing and Beijing declared an emergency due to the gas shortage after the new cold snap gripped much of China, resulting in soaring energy demand as coal supplies were already tight in most of the areas struck by the severe winter weather.

The China Meteorological Administration issued a cold-snap warning on Tuesday, saying temperatures in northern China had plummeted to minus 20 and 32 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in central China, including Hubei and Jiangxi provinces and the eastern coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, nudged close to minus 8 and minus 5 degrees Celsius respectively.

A Nasa satellite image of a snow-covered UK: ‘It’s very unusual to have such uniform coverage,’ said the forecaster Michael Dukes

The gas was turned off for nearly 100 businesses yesterday to protect domestic power supplies after unprecedented demand brought on by the cold weather.

The national grid was forced to reduce the supply to companies in the North West and East Midlands shortly after issuing its second warning in three days that the system was running out of gas. Demand in recent days has been 28 per cent above seasonal norms and is likely to increase today after temperatures fell to minus 21C in some areas overnight — the coldest night of the winter so far.

Business groups and politicians criticised the Government’s attempts to safeguard the supply and called for more gas storage facilities to be built. “The longstanding vulnerability in our energy system has today been exposed and as a nation we now need to take security of our energy supply more seriously,” said Roger Salomone, the energy adviser of EEF, the engineering employers organisation.

John Hemming, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “We are on the edge when it comes to our power supplies and there is no safety margin.”

National Grid issued a warning that the system would run short when pressure dropped in a pipeline that brings gas from Norway to a terminal at Easington on the East Coast of England. It said that it had been the first time in six years it had been forced to curtail the supply.

Britain’s biggest salt mine and the Government are drawing up rationing plans as councils run out of supplies to grit roads. Gordon Brown asked Salt Union, which runs the Winsford Rock Salt Mine, in Cheshire, to increase production as Richard Stokoe, of the Local Government Association, said that some councils such as West Berkshire had enough for only one round of gritting.

– Supplies reach dangerous levels in arctic UK (NEWS.com.au)

Thousands of minor roads and residential streets were icebound last night. The A628 in Derbyshire and Yorkshire, the A66 in Cumbria, the A1(M) in Co Durham and the M20 in Kent all remained closed along with several roads in Wales. Bus services in Cornwall were cancelled.

Thousands of people were left waiting for delayed flights and trains and hundreds were trapped underground for two hours after a Eurostar train broke down in the Channel tunnel.

Winter Chaos Around The World

January 8, 2010January 7, 2010 by Infinite

A train stranded in Shangdu, Inner Mongolia

World:

– Now that really IS the wrong type of snow on the line! Winter brings travel chaos around the world (Daily Mail)

US:

– Midwest bracing for heavy snow, wind chills of -50; South freezes too (AP)

– Colorado Becomes Country’s Cold Spot (ABC News)

– South struggles with record-setting freeze (USA Today)

Europe:

– Airport chaos as icy weather grips northern Europe (BBC News)

– Temperatures across Europe plunge to near record lows (CNN)

– Europe shivers as Britain braces for brutal winter (AFP)

With the UK being hit hard:

The death toll from Britain’s biggest freeze for decades reached 22 today as the country prepared for its coldest night so far, bringing the promise of even more treacherous conditions.

– UK gas supply dwindles as country experiences sub-zero weather (Electric):

The UK faces the possibility of gas supply crisis as the worst cold season in 30 years hit the country.

– UK’s only got enough gas to last eight days, say Tories (Daily Mail)

– U.K. Gas Market No Laughing Matter (Wall Street Journal)

– UK’s only got enough gas to last eight days, say Tories (Daily Mail)

– Some parts of the country have just ONE day’s supply of grit left (Daily Mail)

– Panic buying at supermarkets as Britain braces itself for the big freeze (Daily Mail)

As a sidenote: Met Office chief receives 25 pc pay rise (Telegraph):

The head of the Met Office, the national weather service which has been heavily criticised for getting its forecasts wrong, is now paid more than the Prime Minister, after receiving a 25 per cent pay rise.

China:

– China freeze to continue as power use, food prices rise (AFP)

– Chinese cities not ready for harsh winter (Xinhua)

– China tells factories to cut power use amid cold (BusinessWeek)

– Central China power supply in jeopardy on coal,weather (Reuters)

Cold wave in India:

– Cold waves in northern India claim 195 lives (Indian Express)

Army rescues 1,000 drivers stranded in cars for 12 HOURS as UK is paralysed by heavy snow

winter-chaos
Going nowhere: The A3 in Horndean, Hampshire was closed this morning after 1,000 motorists were stuck in their cars overnight and hundreds of vehicles were abandoned

Up to 1,000 stranded motorists had to be rescued by the Army today after some of the heaviest snowfalls in 20 years left drivers trapped in their cars overnight.
Among those stranded without food and water on the A3 in Hampshire was a heavily-pregnant woman and her baby daughter.

Millions of people across Britain were unable to get to work this morning as snowstorms caused massive disruptions on the roads and railways.

Thousands of schools remain closed, while major airports have been forced to ground flights as snow ploughs try desperately to clear runways of snow and ice.

More than 16 inches (40cm) of snow has fallen in the hills of north east England and the Scottish borders, while 12 inches (30.5cm) was recorded in Berkshire. Parts of the Northern Highlands recorded 18.5 inches (47cm).

The Met Office said southern England could see another six inches (15cm) this afternoon, with the ‘treacherous’ weather lasting for up to ten more days.

The Army, drafted in to save 1,000 drivers stranded on the A3, used military trucks and Land Rovers to rescue those trapped in a ten-mile jam on the trunk road at Waterlooville.

But some of the trapped motorists claimed they received no help at all and that ‘no one knew what was going on’.

Carla Holt said she and her 13-month-old daughter Lily-May were stuck for 12 hours in the freezing conditions. She said she received no support from the police overnight and was only able to leave the road when it was partially cleared at 6.30am today.

The 23-year-old said: ‘We went through hell. I am eight months pregnant, I couldn’t go to the toilet all night, I couldn’t warm the bottle up for my baby daughter. It was very frightening.

Paul Craig Roberts: Republic of Fools & The Evil Empire

November 14, 2009 by Infinite

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Paul Craig Roberts

The US government is now so totally under the thumbs of organized interest groups that “our” government can no longer respond to the concerns of the American people who elect the president and the members of the House and Senate. Voters will vent their frustrations over their impotence on the president, which implies a future of one-term presidents. Soon our presidents will be as ineffective as Roman emperors in the final days of that empire.

Obama is already set on the course to a one-term presidency. He promised change, but has delivered none. His health care bill is held hostage by the private insurance companies seeking greater profits. The most likely outcome will be cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in order to help fund wars that enrich the military/security complex and the many companies created by privatizing services that the military once provided for itself at far lower costs. It would be interesting to know the percentage of the $700+ billion “defense” spending that goes to private companies. In American “capitalism,” an amazing amount of taxpayers’ earnings go to private firms via the government. Yet, Republicans scream about “socializing” health care.

Republicans and Democrats saw opportunities to create new sources of campaign contributions by privatizing as many military functions as possible. There are now a large number of private companies that have never made a dollar in the market, feeding instead at the public trough that drains taxpayers of dollars while loading Americans with debt service obligations.

Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to Uzbekistan for extreme torture, to be ‘raped with broken bottles,’ ‘boiled alive’ and ‘having their children tortured in front of them’

November 5, 2009 by Infinite

This is a MUST-READ.

This is “winning the hearts and minds of people” in action. This is how the US creates real terrorists.

Soldiers wake up! You die for nothing in Afghanistan except corporate profit benefiting only the elite.

The following videos were posted to YouTube by the Real News Network on Oct. 26 and Nov. 4, 2009.

The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country.

Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UK’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program.

“I’m talking of people being raped with broken bottles,” he said at a lecture late last month that was re-broadcast by the Real News Network. “I’m talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. I’m talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on.”

Former UK ambassador Craig Murray

Human rights groups have long been raising the alarm about the legal system in Uzbekistan. In 2007, Human Rights Watch declared that torture is “endemic” to the country’s justice system.

Murray said he only realized after his stint as ambassador that the CIA was sending people to be tortured in Uzbekistan, country he describes as a “totalitarian” state that has never moved on from its communist era, when it was a part of the Soviet Union.

Suspects in Uzbekistan’s gulags “were being told to confess to membership in Al Qaeda. They were told to confess they’d been in training camps in Afghanistan. They were told to confess they had met Osama bin Laden in person. And the CIA intelligence constantly echoed these themes.”

“I was absolutely stunned — it changed my whole world view in an instant — to be told that London knew [the intelligence] coming from torture, that it was not illegal because our legal advisers had decided that under the United Nations convention against torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture as long as we didn’t do the torture ourselves,” Murray said.

IT’S THE PIPELINE, STUPID

Murray asserts that the primary motivation for US and British military involvement in central Asia has to do with large natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As evidence, he points to the plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan that would allow Western oil companies to avoid Russia and Iran when transporting natural gas out of the region.

Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistan’s natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline.

“The consultant who was organizing this for Unocal was a certain Mr. Karzai, who is now president of Afghanistan,” Murray noted.

Winter crisis could see UK ‘run out of gas within six hours’

November 1, 2009 by Infinite

Tories want energy companies ordered to increase reserves

UK could run out of gas within six hours this winter (Action Press/Rex Features)

The UK could run out of gas within six hours this winter, the Observer has learned. The revelation has sparked a row between the Conservatives and Labour over who is doing more to keep the heating on. Last winter, the UK was left with only three days of reserves when foreign energy companies started exporting gas to supply their European customers after Russia cut supplies that used a pipeline through Ukraine.

A spokeswoman for Ed Miliband’s energy and climate change department said that under a civil contingency act he had the power to halt exports from the UK if the Queen had signed the order.

Charles Hendry, the shadow energy minister, told the Observer that the current minimum requirements on companies to keep gas in storage were not tough enough to safeguard the security of the UK’s energy supplies.

Labour hit back this weekend, accusing the Conservatives of “blighting progress” on building more gas storage facilities by blocking planning reforms proposed by the government.

If its storage facilities are full, the UK has enough gas supplies for about 16 days, based on average demand. France’s storage capacity would last a maximum of 91 days and Germany’s 73 days.

Pentagon spends $400 per gallon of gas in Afghanistan

October 18, 2009 by Infinite

It is the US taxpayer that really spends $400 per gallon of gas in Afghanistan.

Someone makes a lot of money here!

The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan.

The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week.

Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate.

“It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense panel, said in an interview with The Hill. “When I heard that figure from the Defense Department, we started looking into it.”

The Pentagon comptroller’s office provided the fuel statistic to the committee staff when it was asked for a breakdown of why every 1,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan costs $1 billion. The Obama administration uses this estimate in calculating the cost of sending more troops to Afghanistan.

The Obama administration is engaged in an internal debate over its future strategy in Afghanistan. Part of this debate concerns whether to increase the number of U.S. troops in that country.

The top U.S. general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, reportedly has requested that about 40,000 additional troops be sent.
Democrats in Congress are divided over whether to send more combat troops to stabilize Afghanistan in the face of waning public support for the war.

Russia ready to abandon US dollar in oil, gas trade with China

October 17, 2009 by Infinite

– Iran to drop US dollar from forex reserves

BEIJING, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is ready to consider using the Russian and Chinese national currencies instead of the dollar in bilateral oil and gas dealings, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.

The premier, currently on a visit to Beijing, said a final decision on the issue can only be made after a thorough expert analysis.

“Yesterday, energy companies, in particular Gazprom, raised the question of using the national currency. We are ready to examine the possibility of selling energy resources for rubles, but our Chinese partners need rubles for that. We are also ready to sell for yuans,” Putin said.

He stressed that “there should be a balance here.”

On Tuesday, Russia and China agreed terms for Russian gas deliveries at a level of up to 70 billion cubic meters a year. China also imports oil from Russia.

The Russian prime minister said the issue would be addressed among others at a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) finance ministers, who are to convene before the end of the year in Kazakhstan.

Britain’s Independent newspaper reported last Tuesday that Russian officials had held “secret meetings” with Arab states, China and France on ending the use of the U.S. dollar in international oil trade.

Uganda’s Oil Reserves Rival Saudi Arabia’s, Says U.S. Expert

June 7, 2009 by Infinite

Kampala — Uganda’s oil reserves could be as much as that of the Gulf countries, a senior official at the US Department of Energy has said.

Based on the test flow results encountered at the wells so far drilled and other oil numbers, Ms. Sally Kornfeld, a senior analyst in the office of fossil energy went ahead to talk about Uganda’s oil reservoirs in the same sentence as Saudi Arabia.

Related article: Uganda toughens as oil bullies close in Xinhua

“You are blessed with amazing reservoirs. Your reservoirs are incredible. I am amazed by what I have seen, you might rival Saudi Arabia,” Kornfeld told a visiting delegation from Uganda in Washington DC.

Oil producers running out of storage space

March 4, 2009 by Infinite

Glut caused by world slowdown leaves the world awash in crude

Many oil tankers are little more than floating storage facilities now. Pat Sullivan / AP

NEW YORK – Supertankers that once raced around the world to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for oil are now parked offshore, fully loaded, anchors down, their crews killing time. In the United States, vast storage farms for oil are almost out of room.

As demand for crude has plummeted, the world suddenly finds itself awash in oil that has nowhere to go.

It’s been less than a year since oil prices hit record highs. But now producers and traders are struggling with the new reality: The world wants less oil, not more. And turning off the spigot is about as easy as turning around one of those tankers.

So oil companies and investors are stashing crude, waiting for demand to rise and the bear market to end so they can turn a profit later.

Meanwhile, oil-producing countries such as Iran have pumped millions of barrels of their own crude into idle tankers, effectively taking crude off the market to halt declining prices that are devastating their economies.

Traders have always played a game of store and sell, bringing oil to market when it can fetch the best price. They say this time is different because of how fast the bottom fell out of the oil market.

“Nobody expected this,” said Antoine Halff, an analyst with Newedge. “The majority of people out there thought the market would keep rising to $200, even $250, a barrel. They were tripping over each other to pick a higher forecast.”

Nobody … except Lindsay Williams, who predicted this when the price of crude oil was at its peak!
The rest of his prediction is well on the way to manifest itself.
Here are two interviews with him:
– Lindsey Williams: America will see a financial collapse (1-22-09)
– Lindsey Williams: The Dollar And The US Will Collapse; Saudi Arabia And Dubai Will Fall; US Will Be Third World Country; The Greatest Depression Is Coming

(You may say what you want about him, but his predictions are here.)

Don’t miss: Jim Rogers: We are going to have another Depression in the U.S.

Now the strategy is storage. Anyone who can buy cheap oil and store it might be able to sell it at a premium later, when the global economy ramps up again.

Russia halts gas supplies to European countries

January 7, 2009 by Infinite

Russia has halted all gas supplies to European countries including Turkey and Greece.

The move comes amid a deepening rift between Russia and Ukraine, which hosts a pipeline supplying gas from its bigger neighbour to countries across Europe.

Bulgaria and Macedonia also reported that all supplies of Russian gas had been cut, while Romania’s pipeline operator said that its supplies had been cut by 75 per cent.

Bulgaria’s finance ministry said the country was facing a crisis. Petar Dimitrov, the economy and energy minister, said: “Russia and Ukraine must find an urgent solution because the energy systems of dozens of countries are at risk.”

The European Commission condemned the cuts as “completely unacceptable”. In an unusually strongly worded statement, it demanded that Russia restore supplies “immediately”.

Russia ordered a reduction in gas flow to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, a measure it said was to stop its neighbour from stealing fuel. Ukraine said the move would jeopardise supplies to the rest of Europe, which is facing freezing temperatures.

Putin orders cut in Ukraine supply

January 5, 2009 by Infinite

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, yesterday ordered Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine bound for Europe in a move that escalates the dispute between the two countries, writes Isabel Gorst in Moscow .

Gazprom claims Kiev has been stealing gas from transit pipelines since it cut off supplies to Ukraine on January 1 after talks about a new gas deal collapsed.

Mr Putin ordered Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom, to cut supplies to the Ukrainian transit system by the same volume as Ukraine had taken.

Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state gas company, said it had been notified by Gazprom that it would cut transit supplies to Europe by 65.3m cubic metres a day to 221.8m cubic metres per day. “Gazprom has in fact cut volumes of transit gas to European customers,” Naftogaz said.

Nine European countries hit by gas shortages amid Russia-Ukraine row

January 5, 2009 by Infinite

A Ukrainian worker at a gas storage and transit point in Boyarka, outside Kiev (Sergei Chuzavkov/AP)

Nine countries in and around Europe have now reported problems with their gas supply as a result of Russia’s dispute with the Ukraine, after Slovakia, Greece and Croatia today disclosed they were experiencing drops in gas pressure.

The development comes as an emergency mission from the European Commission in Brussels and the Czech Presidency of the EU left this morning, bound for Kiev for talks with the Ukrainian authorities as the international crisis deepened.

The delegation of Czech diplomats and senior European officials also plans to meet senior officials from Gazprom, the Russian state gas monopoly, which cut supplies to Ukraine on January 1

Russia cuts gas to Ukraine over unpaid bills

January 1, 2009 by Infinite

Gazprom chief executive says full gas shipments to European Union will continue uninterrupted

Russia cut natural gas deliveries to Ukraine today after negotiations failed to resolve a dispute over unpaid bills and the price for supplies this year.

Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas provider, lowered pressure at 7am GMT in pipelines to Ukraine which also carry in transit about 80% of Russian gas consumed by other countries in Europe.

Ukraine said yesterday that it had paid $1.5bn (£1bn) in debts for supplies in November and December but Gazprom said it had not received that money from RosUkrEnergo, an intermediary company. It is also demanding a further $600m in fines which Ukraine said it is not yet prepared to pay.

The last time exports were terminated – in January 2006 – there was an immediate impact elsewhere in Europe as Ukraine allegedly siphoned off gas meant for onward transit. But the Gazprom chief executive, Alexei Miller, said it would continue full shipments to the European Union, which gets about a quarter of its gas from the Russian company, most of it through pipelines that cross Ukraine.

Water Powered Car: 1 Liter of Water for 80 km

November 30, 2008 by Infinite

Source: YouTube

Link to the company: Genepax

Gas Shortage In the South Creates Panic, Long Lines

September 27, 2008 by Infinite

If Drivers Can Fill Up, They Get Sticker Shock

People wait to fill their tanks at a Citgo station in Charlotte, where drivers have reported gas lines 60 cars long after 11 p.m. (By Davie Hinshaw — The Charlotte Observer)

Gasoline shortages hit towns across the southeastern United States this week, sparking panic buying, long lines and high prices at stations from the small towns of northeast Alabama to Charlotte in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

In Atlanta, half of the gasoline stations were closed, according to AAA, which said the supply disruptions had taken place along two major petroleum product pipelines that have operated well below capacity since the hurricanes knocked offshore oil production and several refineries out of service along the Gulf of Mexico.

Drivers in Charlotte reported lines with as many as 60 cars waiting to fill up late Wednesday night, and a community college in Asheville, N.C., where most of the 25,000 students commute, canceled classes and closed down Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week. Shortages also hit Nashville, Knoxville and Spartanburg, S.C., AAA said.

Millions more face big energy price increases

August 31, 2008 by Infinite

· Up to 34% rise as last two big suppliers get into line
· Government urged to act as more face fuel poverty

Photograph: Steve Taylor/Getty Images

This summer’s misery for energy consumers reached a climax yesterday when the last two of the big six suppliers raised prices for millions of household customers.

ScottishPower, which has just over 5 million customers, said gas bills would rise by 34% from the beginning of next month, and electricity by 9%. Npower said it was putting up gas prices by 26% and electricity by 14% for its 6.6 million customers with immediate effect.

EU threatens sanctions against Russia

August 28, 2008 by Infinite

The French foreign affairs minister, Bernard Kouchner, said sanctions were ‘being considered’. Photograph: Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images

European Union leaders will discuss sanctions against Russia ahead of an emergency summit meeting, the French foreign minister said today, as western leaders increased diplomatic pressure on Moscow.

When asked what measures the west could take against Russia in the crisis over Georgia, Bernard Kouchner told a press conference in Paris: “Sanctions are being considered.”

Ron Paul on Glenn Beck 07/30/2008

August 2, 2008 by Infinite

Part 1

Added: July 30, 2008
Source: YouTube

Part 2

Added: July 30, 2008
Source: YouTube

Russia’s new Great Game

July 28, 2008 by Infinite

Vladimir Putin (left), then the president of Russia, met with Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, in April to discuss arms, energy and debt. AFP

Employing strategies redolent of a new Great Game, Russia has stepped up its diplomatic and trade activities in the Middle East and North Africa in a bid to enhance its geopolitical clout and gain access to, and at least partial control over, the region’s oil and gas reserves.

Among the former global superpower’s tactics: linking arms deals and debt-forgiveness to energy deals.

The strategy has been most apparent in former client states of the Soviet Union including Libya, Iraq and Syria, although by no means limited to such countries. Moreover, Moscow has not shied away from courting the authoritarian regimes of countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya that are or have been shunned by the US and other western governments.

Gazprom Connects to Iran

July 15, 2008 by Infinite

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller in Teheran, July 13, 2008

Gazprom has signed a memorandum on cooperation in production and transportation of oil and natural gas with the National Iranian Oil Co. The Iranian company, which all other oil companies in the world refuse to work with, is promising Gazprom “a full package of projects.” The memorandum was signed by Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari and NIOC managing director Seifollah Jashnsaz. Gazprom will thus have the chance to strengthen its position in the countries with the world’s second largest gas reserves (proven reserves of 28.13 trillion cu. m.).