German-Russian Flagship Projects

KASSEL/MOSCOW (Own report) – The German natural gas company, Wintershall Holding GmbH, is intensifying cooperation with Russia’s Gazprom and will receive direct access to large Siberian gas fields. Last Friday, the two companies announced they would finalize an asset swap this year, which would allow Wintershall to participate in the exploitation of two blocks in the Achimov formation of the Urengoy natural gas field. The deal had been signed back in 2013, but was canceled by Moscow in late 2014, because of the escalation of the conflict with the West. This resumption enables BASF’s subsidiary, Wintershall, to continue its rise in the global gas sector. The Austrian company, OMV, since July 1, under the management of former Wintershall CEO, Rainer Seele, is also participating. Gazprom, Wintershall, OMV and other gas companies have agreed to expand the Russia-to-Germany “Nord Stream” pipeline with two more pipelines. German business circles explicitly describe both as “flagship projects” and push for a rapid re-intensification of cooperation at the political level.

California’s water collapse means many citizens are living like third-world citizens with no running water

(NaturalNews) As California’s wealthier residents worry about keeping their swimming pools full and their lawns green, many of the state’s less fortunate are simply trying to figure out how to survive in communities that have no access to running water.

Thousands of Californians live in areas where local water supplies have either completely dried up or are contaminated by pesticides and other pollutants. In these ‘dry’ communities, many have been without direct access to clean water for the last two years and the number of people who have no running water in their homes is steadily growing.

In Tulare County alone, more than 5,000 people now have no access to drinkable water.

“One Belt, One Road” May Be China’s ‘One Chance’ To Save Collapsing Economy

In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping marked a historic visit to neighboring Pakistan. China, via Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, will invest some $50 billion in Pakistani infrastructure, including power plants, roads, railways, and, perhaps most importantly, the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline. The vast sum represents 53% more than the US has given Islamabad over the past 13 years combined. China is also set to invest an equally large sum in Brazil and is even considering the construction a railroad over the Andes, which would connect Brazil to China via the Pacific and ports in Peru.

California’s Central Valley Sinking Faster Than Ever Before As Farmers Drill For Water During Drought

FRESNO (CBS SF) — California’s Central Valley is sinking at a rate never before seen during the state’s historic drought, and farmers are shouldering some  of the blame for the damage that sinking is causing.

Steve Arthur of Arthur & Orum Well Drilling is drilling wells as fast as his rigs will let him.

“It’s unbelievable.  We can’t keep up with the demand,” Arthur told KPIX 5.

Russia unveils plans for high speed railway and superhighway to connect Europe and America

Other articles (See HERE) suggest this has been talked about and planned for quite a while ago.

 

 

Plans for a new high-speed transport corridor that could potentially link London and New York by rail and superhighway have been unveiled.

The idea, dubbed the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TERP), would see a high speed railway and motorway built from Eastern Europe, across Siberia and over the Bering Strait to Alaska.

Gazprom’s AAA Credit Rating Ensures Cheap Credit for China Projects

What Russian and China basically did was create new rating agencies to give each other legitimacy. Here we now have the end result. As the U.S. suicidally declines, look for these to gain traction.

 

MOSCOW, February 2 (Sputnik) — Gazprom’s AAA investment rating with Chinese rating agency Dagong will help reduce the costs of obtaining Chinese loans, which in turn will help to ensure the completion of the energy companies’ projects with China, BCS financial analyst Kirill Tachennikov told Sputnik on Monday.

Putin: Russia will reduce Europe’s gas supplies if Ukraine takes gas

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Russia will have to reduce gas supplies to Europe if Ukraine steals gas. Pipelines that supply Europe crosses Ukraine en route.

SCO Seeks Transport Hub in Mongolia, Eyes to Boost Market in India

MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – The Shanghai Group is expected to consider Mongolia as the next member of the organization, which is set to become a transport hub, the director of the Russia department of the SCO International Relations Institute said Wednesday.

“We hope that the SCO will consider the issue of accepting new member states, including Mongolia. New members will receive aid to develop security,” Feng Noyzun said at the International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya press conference.

Obama aims oil weapon at Putin but will he pull the trigger?

Depleting your oil ‘savings account’ might not be the wisest idea when you are both one of the largest consumers of oil in the world and not one of the largest producers.

Oil prices are on the brink of possibly their biggest correction since the global financial crisis after Vladimir Putin’s gamble to use Russia’s crude as a political weapon backfired spectacularly on the Kremlin.

A potent energy superpower, Russia had thought that it could use its status as the world’s largest oil producer and biggest exporter of natural gas through cross-border pipelines to intimidate and quite literally bully Western powers into submission over Ukraine.

The Battle for Canada’s Oil Sands

One hundred and seventy billion: That is the number of economically recoverable barrels of oil the Canadian oil sands are estimated to hold. It is a big prize. At $100 per barrel, it is a $17.3 trillion prize, enough to pay the official U.S. federal debt with trillions to spare. In a world of global population growth and “peak oil” constraints, it is an economy-changing, potentially country-changing prize that could skyrocket in value even higher in the years ahead.

But who will benefit from this supposed money-gushing cornucopia?

The Canadian oil sands are so expansive that America’s northern neighbors are practically begging for investors to develop them. “Our oil sands are the largest energy project in the entire world,” said Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver on a recent trip to China. “We simply don’t have enough capital in Canada.”

It was a shocking statement—not because of what he said, but because of where he said it. Traditionally, Canada has looked to the United States for oil infrastructure development. But those days may be ending. When President Obama refused to permit the proposed Keystone pipeline that would have brought oil from Alberta to Texas refineries, he may have unwittingly changed the special relationship.

For now, Canada’s oil is landlocked, with no way to market. Existing pipelines to America are filled to capacity. But hundreds of thousands of extra barrels of oil per day are set to come onto the market over the next half decade as the oil sands operations are built. Trillions of dollars’ of oil will flow somewhere; that much you can be sure of. If America doesn’t want it for political reasons, the oil companies will find another customer.

China is already pointing the way. In January, Reuters reported that Canada’s oil industry is experiencing an “Asian invasion.” Most recently, Chinese government-owned Petro China purchased the Athabasca Oil Sands MacKay River project. It also owns an option agreement to purchase Athabasca’s Dover project. Last July, cnooc, another Chinese state-owned company, paid more than a billion dollars for Opti Canada’s 35 percent stake in its Long Lake project. That project will extract over 70,000 barrels of oil per day when up and running. In 2010, Chinese state-owned Sinopec spent $4.65 billion for a chunk of Syncrude Canada Ltd—one of the world’s largest oil sands mining operations. Sinopec also owns 50 percent of Canada’s Northern Lights project. Not long before, China Investment Corp., a giant state-owned sovereign wealth fund, offered $1.25 billion to help Penn West Energy develop oil sands leases. Canada’s Husky Energy has been owned by interests in Hong Kong for decades.

Full article: The Battle for Canada’s Oil Sands (The Trumpet)