News
Publish date: May 23, 2006
News
In recent weeks, Russia’s Gazprom has repeatedly delayed announcing foreign partners on the giant, multi-billion effort to develop the Shtokman field. U.S. oil majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips are competing with three European companies for job, RigZone reported.
"I think it would be useful, but I don’t think it’s imperative," Bodman said of the importance that Gazprom select at least one U.S. company."I’m hopeful it will happen," he said. "But if it doesn’t happen, I’m sure they’ll find other opportunities."
A Kremlin spokesman this week linked Gazprom’s decision on Shtokman to U.S. resistance to Russian entry into the World Trade Organization. The Kremlin also has bristled at recent criticism of Russia by Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials. Gazprom, of which the Russian government is the majority-owner, has denied a political link to the Shtokman decision.
"They have their own decision-making process," Bodman said of Russia. "Often, in dealing with the Russians, they come close to making a decision, and then the world changes and so they want to add other factors to it."
Throughout the past year, our mission at the Bellona Environmental Transparency Center has focused on two key, but intertwined issues—nuclear and radiation safety as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on, and the worldwide influence of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, which itself is actively involved in the war and has participated in the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
At the beginning of the year, reports in the German and Russian press suggested an approximate 70% increase in uranium imports from Russia to Germany in 2024. But does this reflect broader European trends? It does not. Overall, imports of uranium and nuclear fuel from Russia to Western countries actually dropped sharply in 2024. Unlike the situation in Germany, this is already an established trend.
A Lingen, Germany plant could begin producing nuclear fuel in cooperation with a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, which is directly involved in the war in Ukraine and occupying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.