Russia: Pipeline deal raises concerns

[Dover]

Source: ISN - ETH Zurich

Russia: Pipeline deal raises concerns
Russia, Greece and Bulgaria have signed a long-awaited deal to build a trans-Balkan pipeline that will boost oil supplies to Western markets.

By Chloe Arnold


The pipeline will ship Russian oil from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, avoiding the overcrowded Bosphorus Strait.

But there are fears the project will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian energy supplies.

At a grand ceremony in Athens on March 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the construction of the pipeline as a step forward for the delivery of energy supplies to Western markets.

"The implementation of this project increases the stability not only of the Balkans but of the entire world energy market, without any doubt, for at least two reasons: first of all, it helps increase raw energy supplies to world markets, and secondly, it diversifies the ways of delivering energy resources to those markets," Putin said....>



Read more: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17393

[madrchsod]

1. i think europe can handle their own problems

after all they have been around for several thousand years...

[Ghost Dog]

2. Yeah. The likes of our (now) good friends of the Golden Horde included.

<grin>. In this case, what Putin said: "first of all, it helps increase raw energy supplies to world markets, and secondly, it diversifies the ways of delivering energy resources to those markets,".

Sure, it's important to diversify sources, and above all technologies (not to mention consumption patterns) also.