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Publish date: February 20, 2005
News
According to a Lukoil press service report, Vagit Alekperov, Lukoil’s president, expressed this opinion at a conference of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) held in Houston, RIA-Novosti reported. In his report on prospects for Russian-American energy dialogue, he pointed out “Russia clearly understands now that its reliance on Europe as the only consumer cannot last.” In Alekperov’s words, for several years now Russian companies have been making trial raw materials supplies to both the West and the East. Thus, last year Russia exported 145,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States, and 216,000 barrels a day to China. “The final choice will be made only when it is clear which of the two directions is better developed from the point of view of pipeline and port infrastructure,” Alekperov stressed.
In Houston, Lukoil’s president made a proposal to build a pipeline towards Murmansk within the framework of a strategic alliance concluded in 2004 by Lukoil and ConocoPhillips (on the establishment of a joint venture for developing the northern part of the Timan-Pechora oil and gas-bearing province). In the opinion of Mr. Alekperov and the company’s specialists, “the cost of oil transportation by this route to the US eastern coast would be twice lower than oil delivery by the Middle East- Gulf of Mexico route.”
“By uniting Russia’s scientific and industrial potential with the United States’ technological and financial potential, we could attain impressive results. Thus far, this scenario has been translated into life only at the level of individual companies. Its implementation on an interstate level would be in our common interests,” Lukoil’s president said in conclusion, reported RIA-Novosti.
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.