Michael Hudson has neatly summarized it:
"Now, just imagine in this country if President Obama and Vice-President Biden were to send troops into upstate New York, which has opposed oil/gas drilling, and bombed Rochester, bombed Buffalo, and began just bombing the cities and shooting the opponents of the fracking. That's exactly what's happening in the [sic] Ukraine. And they're doing this supported by the World Bank."
Royal Dutch Shell happens to be the top shale gas explorers/exploiters in eastern Ukraine; a $10 billion deal was signed in January.
And then there's the Exxon as well as the Burisma Holdings connection. Dual Israeli-Ukraine citizen and appointed governor of Dnepropetrovsk, shady billionaire Igor Kolomoisky -- who also deploys his own private militia -- is in bed with no less than VP Biden. Joe Biden's son was appointed a director of oil and gas concern Burisma Holdings, the largest fracking company in Ukraine.
Moreover, parliament in Kiev passed a law that will allow US and EU investers to lease up -- on a joint venture basis -- up to 49 percent of Ukraine's transit pipelines and underground gas storage facilities.
Kiev's spin is predictable; the joint venture will bring in much-needed "investment" and shelve for good another key Pipelineistan plank; the 2,446-kilometer long South Stream pipeline, which is planned to bring Gazprom's blue gold under the Black Sea, entering the EU in Bulgaria, and thus totally bypassing transit through Ukraine. Translation: Kiev's already wobbly budget will shrink even further with more meager transit fees.
The EU imports almost 30 percent of the gas it needs from Russia. Half, at the moment, transits via Ukraine. But for the near future the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea will be boosted, and South Stream is a near certainty once the Ukraine mess is finally sorted out. Bypassing Ukraine is an increasingly sound option.
Compare it to Kiev's wet dream, boosted by Washington, to "control" the flow of gas from Gazprom to the EU and on top of it secure all trade in US dollars. Once again we're back to prime Empire of Chaos policy -- preventing further energy/economic integration between Russia and the EU.
Washington's short-term priority thus is to sabotage South Stream; no wonder the pipeline is temporarily on hold, with the European Commission (EC) duly obeying His Masters Voice. Yet this also means that for the moment large swathes of the EU remain hostage to Ukraine.
It's under this light that we should examine the recent intervention by Iran's deputy oil minister Ali Mejidi, when he enthusiastically affirmed the perennially troubled Nabucco, a Pipelineistan opera if there ever was one, was back in play.
Nabucco's idea was to bring gas to the EU via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. Bur where from? Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were finally ruled out. It could be Azerbaijani gas, but that requires a fortune in extra investment. The Iraqi industry won't be ready anytime soon. And Iran will be finally in play only if a nuclear deal is clinched till the end of 2014, and sanctions lifted in 2015 (all this a major "if.")
So in Ukraine, just like in Syria, we're back to square one in energy terms. The country is an economic basket case now being hurled inside the hellish disaster capitalism pit. The details are here. In the end, Gazprom is likely to emerge the winner.
Confused by Syria and Ukraine? Don't worry: just follow the energy wars.
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