By John Helmer in Moscow It was the the 19th century German politician Otto von Bismarck, who famously claimed that politics is the art of the possible — before he sent his armies to invade westwards. To judge the outcome of this month’s “gas war”, initially between Russia and Ukraine, but then involving many of […]

by John Helmer - Friday, January 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow There can’t be too many young children, who were still awake when the Ukrainian gas pantomine finished its traditional January run on Monday evening in Moscow. The problem was that those presiding at the curtain-fall, the Prime Ministers of Russia and Ukraine, and the heads of their respective gas companies, […]

by John Helmer - Monday, January 19th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Moscow this week has agreed on an organizational charter and a new headquarters, but stopped short of including all the gas exporting majors, and did not attempt to introduce a scheme for price controls for gas exports. But there was […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia kept its observer’s status at this week’s summit conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and avoided taking the plunge into membership of the international oil cartel that was hinted at by the Kremlin last week. At the same time, the Kremlin is playing a siren song […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 18th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Indian government has until midnight to decide whether to pay a huge premium for undeveloped Siberian oil reserves held by one of the most highly leveraged oil companies in the Russian market. Yesterday, the UK Takeover Panel refused to extend the deal deadline beyond today. The oil is located […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow MOSCOW – After years of on-off negotiations and recriminations between Beijing, Moscow and Tokyo, Russia’s state pipeline company Transneft agreed this week to complete construction of a pipeline to deliver crude oil between Skovorodino, in southeastern Siberia, and Daqing, the oilfield and refinery hub in northeast Heilongjiang, in China. The […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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Now you see Murli Deora, now you don’t — what game are the Indians playing with Russian oil? By John Helmer in Moscow India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Murli Deora, was to have been in Moscow last week to urge approval of a controversial plan to put ₤1.4 billion into a London-listed company […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s vice premier for energy and resources, Igor Sechin — who is also chairman of Rosneft, the state owner oil producer and lead exporter — met behind closed doors on the weekend with the heads of Russia’s oil and gas majors to discuss their refinancing problems. State intervention to support […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
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COURT TO RULE ON DISCLOSURE OF TRANSFER PRICE OF RUSSIAN OIL By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian oil trading company Gunvor, controlled in Geneva by Gennady Timchenko, is facing margin uncertainties as the global oil price falls, and Russian producers respond to a profit squeeze of high taxes and rising costs. Exactly what happens […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 26th, 2008
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Have gas, will travel By John Helmer in Moscow You have to be older than Condoleezza Rice (b. November 14, 1954) to remember the first episodes of the greatest western ever to be broadcast on US radio and television. That was “Have Gun, Will Travel”, beginning in 1957. Over the following six years, in 225 […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
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