The two nations are aiming to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion in 2015, in addition to signing agreements on the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the second gas pipeline leading to China, the so-called “western route.”

“This year, our practical cooperation will bring important results. For example, we have been working hard to bring the bilateral trade to $100 billion,” the Foreign Minister said. “We shall sign an agreement on the Silk Road Economic Belt, shall begin construction of the eastern line of the gas pipeline and shall sign an agreement on its western line.”

“We will develop and deepen our cooperation in the financial and banking areas, in the area of nuclear energy, oilfields,” Yi said, according to RT.

In 2014, bilateral trade between Russia and China grew by 6.8% to $95.28 billion.

“We shall also launch strategic cooperation in development of the Russian Far East and will improve the cooperation in high-speed railroads,” the foreign minister added.

China has been working intensively on a $242 billion (1.5 trillion yuan) high-speed railway to link Beijing and Moscow.

The railway will be 7,000 kilometers long and will cut the journey time between the two cities from five to ‘two days’.

Russia’s New High Speed Train (Source: business insider)

Russia and China are also currently involved in project to jointly develop a long-haul wide-body passenger aircraft.

The joint project could see $13 billion of investment, with both nations planning to invest $6.5 billion each.

The new plane is planned to undergo its first test flight in 2021 and  is expected to enter into production in 2025.

In May 2014, Russia’s energy giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC signed a $400 billion contract to supply 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year to China for 30 years via the Power of Siberia pipeline.

Last week Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that Russia is considering the idea of granting Chinese Investors over 50 percent share in strategic oil and gas fields, except for offshore.

China and Russia recently switched to using their domestic currencies in trade with such financial tools as swaps and forwards as they seek to reduce the influence of the U.S. dollar.

China has set up bilateral currency swap lines with more than 20 countries and regions since 2009, including Switzerland, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Korea.

The number of bilateral currency swap lines will increase as China, who is now advertising the Renminbi as the ‘new world currency’, continues to ramp up its drive for the globalization of its currency.

In 2014, Russia and China were instrumental in establishing the $100 billion New Development Bank (NDB) — also known as the BRICs Bank — that will serve as a pool of money to help fund infrastructure projects in Russia, Brazil, India, China and South Africa, and will challenge the dominance of the Western-led World Bank and the IMF.

On February 25, the European Commission presented its Energy Union package of proposals, a first major step made by the European legislators to realise the strategy of coordinating the energy policies of the 28 EU member states. Indeed, the European Commission envisages a union that speaks with one voice in global affairs and that creates “an integrated continent-wide energy system where energy flows freely across borders.” The document also emphasizes natural gas management and supply diversification. Analysts described it as an attempt to ease the Kremlin’s “stranglehold” on Europe’s gas supplies.

The European Union relies on Moscow for almost a third of its overall natural gas demand. Many EU member states import most of their gas from Russia and some, namely Finland and the Baltic countries, are entirely reliant on it. The debate about the necessity to reduce such dependence gained prominence when gas deliveries to Europe were put on hold as a result of a pricing dispute between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz in winter 2009. Additionally, the Kremlin is criticised for using energy prices as its bargaining tool both for receiving political concessions and overcharging its European clients.

There may be truth to this claim, with the gas prices reportedly varying 20-30% among buyers in the EU. Therefore, the package of proposals is viewed in Brussels as a stepping stone to more affordable and competitive prices for consumers and to a greater security of supply.

The idea of the Energy Union was initially spearheaded by former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who proposed to “confront Russia’s monopolistic position with a single European body charged with buying its gas.” The new president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker made the achievement of a resilient Energy Union his top priority. However, in order for the Energy Union to come into force, the package of proposals will first need to be translated into legislation to be adopted by 2019. Only afterwards is the Energy Union expected to be fully realized and start operating, around 2030.

The implementation of this ambitious project will require not only years of work, but also an estimated €200 bn of investment.

Diversification of Supply Routes

The newly-published communication highlights that the diversification of energy sources away from Russia is the chief measure for improving European energy security. The European Commission shows determination to intensify work on the South Gas Corridor and “to establish strategic energy partnerships with increasingly important producing and transit countries or regions such as Algeria and Turkey; Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan; the Middle East; Africa and other potential suppliers.”

Additionally, the document encourages the EU member states to build Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals as an alternative to Russian pipeline gas.

When it comes to energy security, analyst Luca Bergamaschi argues that reliability of trading partners is more important than the number of import routes. However, Europe’s alternative suppliers are by and large incapable of providing stable gas deliveries on a long-term basis.

For instance, Algeria’s export volumes have already been reduced by 40% between 2012 and 2013 due to a surge in local demand combined with a lack of investment. Current estimates are that Algeria will deplete its reserves by 2030 and soon after will become a net importer.

Similarly the hydrocarbons from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, in which the European Union places much hope, are problematic in terms of their availability and transportation. Production and export volumes from these countries are only expected to compensate for the cutback in imports from Libya and Algeria. All additional volumes are expected to be “eaten up” by growing gas consumption in Europe.

Most importantly, Russian gas is still by far the cheapest on the European market, rendering it hard to replace with current alternative routes not necessarily reliable or economically viable. Reducing the demand for gas (by using alternative energy sources and increasing energy efficiency) could potentially bring the EU better results in solving the “over-dependence” on Russia.

Integration of Energy System

The Energy Union initiative is ultimately attempting to secure a reliable energy supply in Europe to improve the investment climate, create new jobs and spur economic growth. The European Commission believes that this could be successfully achieved if the risk of supply disruptions, as the one that took place in 2009, could be mitigated by expanding the network of interconnecting pipelines and electricity grids.

Additionally, experts believe that connecting countries in Eastern Europe, such as Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania to supply chains that will carry non-Russian gas will decrease their dependence on Moscow. Although straightforward in theory, the large distance between countries will further increase the cost of the already more expensive non-Russian fuel.

The European Commission calls on member states to consult the EU when negotiating supply contracts with major energy providers, such as Gazprom. This measure was at the heart of Tusk’s proposal and is aimed at ending Moscow’s strategy of “divide and rule.”

While this project has a great potential to substantially decrease Moscow’s bargaining power and its ability to set prices in the European market, it will prove hard for European countries to agree upon this matter. For instance, Germany receives Russian gas on favourable long-term contracts through a dedicated North Stream pipeline at a price 15% lower than, for instance, Lithuania. Hungary also recently negotiated a lucrative gas supply deal with Russia and now calls the Energy Union a threat to its national interests.

Although the recently announced Energy Union package of proposals is designed to break the EU’s dependence on Russian gas, its chances of success are small. The emphasis on diversifying supply routes is misplaced and the EU should focus on reducing the overall demand for gas through energy efficiency and alternative energy sources. With energy market integration a very costly and politically divisive enterprise, the EU will need years of work to successfully reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

This article was originally published in International Policy Digest

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International Policy Digest is an online magazine that focuses on current events and world affairs.  For more information, please visit http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/

Picture: Slava Titov; Source: The Siberian Times

Over the past several years, Russia has been working on the development of its Arctic territories in areas including hydrocarbon exploration and production, and has been developing a Northern Sea Route, an alternative Europe-Asia trade route made possible by the regression of the polar ice cap.

Russia is currently modernizing its existing port facilities and constructing new terminals in the Arctic. These efforts are expected to raise the port capacity of Russian Arctic ports from 72 to 115 million tons-worth of cargo per year over the next 15 years.

“In 2013, the capacity of the ports in the Arctic Basin was estimated at 72 million tons per year, while the actual turnover consisted of only 46 million tons; that is, only 60 percent of the ports’ existing capacity was in use,” RosMorPort Deputy Director Sergei Antonov said according to Sputnik. [Capacity Of Russian Arctic Ports To Grow By 60% Over Next 15 Years]

Citing the policy document “Strategy for the Development of Port Facilities up to 2030,” Antonov stated that the growth in demand for liquid cargo by the end of this period “is expected to reach 133 million tons.”

In the meantime Russia has made a huge milestone step. The first oil shipment left from Yamal Peninsula as tankers headed through the Northern Sea Route for first time.

The frozen waters of Arctic are a big challenge so tests were carried out last year. They tend to be open for about four months in the summer only. And what an achievement! The first ships have departed well ahead of schedule in winter.

“For the first time oil from Novoportovskoye is going to be delivered to European customers. We want to thank Gazprom Oil for their fruitful co-operation (…) I have no doubt that such successful events like today’s oil shipping will strengthen the company even more, cement our relations, and will work towards further social and economic development of Yamal, as well as will make our country even more successful,” Dmitry Kobylkin, the Yamal Nenets Autonomous region governor said.

The Gazprom Oil tankers are due to arrive in Europe early next month. They left Yamal escorted by an ice breaker.  The new route through the East Siberian Sea can save at least three weeks opposite to the traditional route from Russia leading via Asia to Europe.

Picture: Slava Titov; Source: The Siberian Times

ETFs: RSX, ERUS

BRICS 2014 summit participants: Russian President Vladmir Putin, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African Presdient Jacob Zuma. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.

And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.

So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted “forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.

The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current – rigged – world system are concerned. True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.

That leaves the “RIC” – Russia, India and China – in BRICS as the key drivers of change. For all their interlocking discrepancies, they all agree they don’t need to challenge the hegemon directly while aiming for a new multipolar order.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) – a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency – will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations. Forget about the Western-controlled World Bank, whose capital and lending capacity are never increased by the so-called Western “powers.” The NDB will be an open institution. BRICS nations will keep 55 percent of the voting power, and outside their domain no country will be allowed more than 7 percent of votes. But crucially, developing nations may also become partners and receive loans.

BRICS Leaders. Photograph Courtesy of Getty Images/Sasha Mordovets

Damn those communists

A tripartite entente cordiale is also in the making. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in China next May – and ‘Chindia’ will certainly engage in a breakthrough concerning their bitter territorial disputes. As much as Delhi has a lot to benefit from China’s massive capital investment and exports, Beijing wants to profit from India’s vast market and technology savvy. In parallel, Beijing has already volunteered economic help to Russia – if Moscow asks for it – on top of their evolving strategic partnership.

The US “pivoting to Asia” – launched at the Pentagon – is all dressed up with no place to go. Bullying Southeast Asia, South Asia and, for that matter, East Asia as a whole into becoming mere ‘Empire of Chaos’ vassals – and on top of it confronting China – was always a non-starter. Not to mention believing in the fairy tale of a remilitarized Japan able to “contain” China.

Isolating the “communist dictatorship” won’t fly. Just watch, for instance, the imminent high-speed rail link between Kunming, in Yunnan province, and Singapore, traversing a key chunk of a Southeast Asia which for Washington would never qualify to be more than a bunch of client states. The emerging 21st century Asia is all about interconnection; and the inexorable sun in this galaxy is China.

As China has embarked in an extremely complex tweaking of its economic development model, as I outlined here, China’s monopoly of low-end manufacturing – its previous industrial base – is migrating across the developing world, especially around the Indian Ocean basin. Good news for the Global South – and that includes everyone from African nations such as Kenya and Tanzania to parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Of course the ‘Empire of Chaos’, business-wise, won’t be thrown out of Asia. But its days as an Asian hegemon, or a geopolitical Mob offering “protection”, are over.

The Chinese remix of Go West, Young Man – in fact go everywhere – started as early as 1999. Of the top 10 biggest container ports in the world, no less than 7 are in China (the others are Singapore, Rotterdam, and Pusan in South Korea). As far as the 12th Chinese 5-year plan – whose last year is 2015 – is concerned, most of the goals of the seven technology areas China wanted to be in the leading positions have been achieved, and in some cases even superseded.

The Bank of China will increasingly let the yuan move more freely against the US dollar. It will be dumping a lot of US dollars every once in a while. The 20-year old US dollar peg will gradually fade. The biggest trading nation on the planet, and the second largest economy simply cannot be anchored to a single currency. And Beijing knows very well how a dollar peg magnifies any external shocks to the Chinese economy.

Sykes-Picot is us

A parallel process in Southwest Asia will also be developing; the dismantling of the nation-state in the Middle East – as in remixing the Sykes-Picot agreement of a hundred years ago. What a stark contrast to the return of the nation-state in Europe.

There have been rumblings that the remixed Sykes is Obama and the remixed Picot is Putin. Not really. It’s the ‘Empire of Chaos’ that is actually acting as the new Sykes-Picot, directly and indirectly reconfiguring the “Greater Middle East.” Former NATO capo Gen. Wesley Clark has recently “revealed” what everyone already knew; the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh fake Caliphate is financed by “close allies of the United States,” as in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel. Compare that with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon admitting that ISIS “does not represent a threat to Israeli interests.” Daesh does the unraveling of Sykes-Picot for the US.

The ‘Empire of Chaos’ actively sought the disintegration of Iraq, Syria and especially Libya. And now, leading the House of Saud, “our” bastard in charge King Salman is none other than the former, choice jihad recruiter for Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the Afghan Salafist who was the brains behind both Osama bin Laden and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.

This is classic ‘Empire of Chaos’ in motion (exceptionalists don’t do nation building, just nation splintering). And there will be plenty of nasty, nation-shattering sequels, from the Central Asian stans to Xinjiang in China, not to mention festering, Ukraine, a.k.a Nulandistan.

Parts of Af-Pak could well turn into a branch of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh right on the borders of Russia, India, China, and Iran. From an ‘Empire of Chaos’ perspective, this potential bloodbath in the “Eurasian Balkans” – to quote eminent Russophobe Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski – is the famous “offer you can’t refuse.”

Russia and China, meanwhile, will keep betting on Eurasian integration; strengthening the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their own internal coordination inside the BRICS; and using plenty of intel resources to go after The Caliph’s goons.

And as much as the Obama administration may be desperate for a final nuclear deal with Iran, Russia and China got to Tehran first. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Tehran two weeks ago; stressing Iran is one of China’s “foreign policy priorities” and of great “strategic importance.” Sooner rather than later Iran will be a member of the SCO. China already does plenty of roaring trade with Iran, and so does Russia, selling weapons and building nuclear plants.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Berlin-Moscow-Beijing?

And then there’s the German question.

Germany now exports 50 percent of its GDP. It used to be only 24 percent in 1990. For the past 10 years, half of German growth depended on exports. Translation: this is a giant economy that badly needs global markets to keep expanding. An ailing EU, by definition, does not fit the bill.

German exports are changing their recipient address. Only 40 percent – and going down – now goes to the EU; the real growth is in Asia. So Germany, in practice, is moving away from the eurozone. That does not entail Germany breaking up the euro; that would be interpreted as a nasty betrayal of the much-lauded “European project.”

What the trade picture unveils is the reason for Germany’s hardball with Greece: either you surrender, completely, or you leave the euro. What Germany wants is to keep a partnership with France and dominate Eastern Europe as an economic satellite, relying on Poland. So expect Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to face a German wall of intransigence. So much for European “integration,” it works as long as Germany dictates all the rules.

The spanner in the works is that the double fiasco Greece + Ukraine has been exposing. Berlin as an extremely flawed European hegemon – and that’s quite an understatement. Berlin suddenly woke up to the real, nightmarish possibility of a full blown, American-instigated war in Europe’s eastern borderlands against Russia. No wonder Angela Merkel had to fly to Moscow in a hurry.

Moscow – diplomatically – was the winner. And Russia won again when Turkey – fed up with trying to join the EU and being constantly blocked by, who else, Germany and France – decided to pivot to Eurasia for good, ignoring NATO and amplifying relations with both Russia and China.

That happened in the framework of a major ‘Pipelineistan’ game-changer. After Moscow cleverly negotiated the realignment of South Stream towards Turk Stream, right up to the Greek border, Putin and Greek Prime Minister Tsipras also agreed to a pipeline extension from the Turkish border across Greece to southern Europe. So Gazprom will be firmly implanted not only in Turkey but also Greece, which in itself will become mightily strategic in European ‘Pipelineistan’.

So Germany, sooner or later, must answer a categorical imperative – how to keep running massive trade surpluses while dumping their euro trade partners. The only possible answer is more trade with Russia, China and East Asia. It will take quite a while, and there will be many bumps on the road, but a Berlin-Moscow-Beijing trade/commercial axis – or the “RC” in BRICS meet Germany – is all but inevitable.

And no, you won’t read that in any wacky US ‘Think Tankland’ “forecast.”

Pepe Escobar‘s latest book, just out, is Empire of Chaos. Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007), Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge (Nimble Books, 2007), and Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EMerging Equity.

Courtesy of RT

“Gazprom has been fully complying with its obligations under the Ukraine gas supply contract and will continue doing that.”

“The advance payment for gas supply made by the Ukrainian side will be in place for another three to four days. If there is no further prepayment, Gazprom will suspend supplies under the contract and its supplement. Of course, this could create a certain problem for [gas] transit to Europe to our European partners.”

According to the report, Putin expressed hope that the situation would not come to that and stressed that “it depends on the financial discipline of our Ukrainian partners.”

On Tuesday, Gazprom’s CEO Aleksey Miller reminded Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz of the gas prepayment as he said that Ukraine hadn’t paid for its March deliveries and warned that Kiev was risking an early termination of the advance settlement and a supply cutoff.

“It takes about two days to get payment from Naftogaz deposited to a Gazprom account. That’s why a delivery to Ukraine of 114 million cubic meters will lead to a complete termination of Russian gas supplies as early as in two days, which creates serious risks for the transit to Europe.”

Ukraine is running on empty. Photo courtesy of EPA/Filip Singer.

Gazprom says that Russia will completely cut off Ukraine from gas supplies within the next two days if Kiev doesn’t pay for deliveries, which will create “serious” transit risks for gas flow to Europe, Gazprom said in a statement on Tuesday, RT and Reuters report.

According to the statement Ukraine has not paid for March gas deliveries and is extracting all it can from the current paid supply, which is seriously risking an early termination of the advance settlement and a supply cutoff, RT reports.

Ukraine has 219 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas remaining that will be used up in two days. With no new payment, Russia would be forced to stop supplies to Ukraine, the statement said, Reuters reports.

“It takes about two days to get payment from Naftogaz deposited to a Gazprom account. That’s why a delivery of to Ukraine of 114 million cubic meters will lead to a complete termination of Russian gas supplies as early as in two days, which creates serious risks for the transit to Europe,” Gazprom’s CEO Alexey Miller told journalists, RT reports.

Photo: the Presidential Press and Information Office

By The Kremlin

Implementation of the Minsk Agreements and current issues on the domestic economic agenda were also discussed.

Taking part in the meeting were Prime MinisterDmitry Medvedev, Federation Council SpeakerValentina Matviyenko, State Duma SpeakerSergei Naryshkin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council Rashid Nurgaliyev, and permanent member of the Security Council Boris Gryzlov.

* * *

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon colleagues.

I want to start by asking Mr Medvedev to brief us on the situation with energy supplies to our neighbour, Ukraine. We have been receiving different information on this matter. The Government has already taken the relevant decisions.

Mr Medvedev, what is actually happening?

PRIME MINISTER DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr President, as we know, the Ukrainian organisations stopped gas supplies some time ago to the unrecognised republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Despite their assurances that they are ready to restore gas supply, it has not been resumed yet according to the standard system. Gas is not coming through the standard system to these two unrecognised territories.

This is putting people’s lives and health at risk. Yesterday, following my instruction, our Energy Ministry and Gazprom, acting in response to a request from the gas supply organisations in the two unrecognised republics, examined the possibility of providing gas supplies via an alternative route.

This alternative route was always there and we sometimes even used it. Given that gas is not coming in via the normal route, we have organised supplies via the alternative route.

At the moment, gas is now being supplied in the quantities required to meet the needs of districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and in the two unrecognised republics themselves.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: What about the gas supply situation in general in Ukraine?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: As far as the current situation goes, our customers in Ukraine are getting the gas supplies that were agreed. As you recall though, Mr President, the problem is that we went over to a prepayment system with the Ukrainians, and these payments are coming through, albeit with difficulty.

However, the advance payments are not big enough to make it possible to continue gas supplies over a long period. If they continue using as much gas over the coming days as they are right now, the prepaid amounts will run out in just a few days, in three or four days.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Ukraine’s gas consumers asked for an increase on the volumes initially agreed.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Yes, they asked for an increase, but we will act in accordance with the contract we concluded. Whether we are talking about consumers throughout the whole of Ukraine or consumers in individual regions, they are all part of the overall gas volumes supplied to Ukraine. We will continue supplying gas so long as they continue to pay, taking into account too the gas that we are currently supplying in humanitarian aims via the alternative route to the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: They are asking for around three times more gas than before?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: They are asking for 2.5-times more as far as I know. Either our Ukrainian partners are going to have to pay for these supplies, or we will once again have to make a difficult decision.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: I ask the Russian Government to keep to the contract obligations and act in strict accordance with them.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good, we will do this, Mr President.

Courtesy of The Kremlin

ETFs: RSX, ERUS

“The company is in good financial shape despite of all the currency fluctuations and is ready to implement all of its investment plans even with oil prices dropping to $40 or even to $30 per barrel,” said Andrey Kruglov, the financial director of Gazprom.

On Thursday, Brent crude traded around $58 a barrel which marked a cooling from the recovery at the beginning of the month, when it hit $60 a barrel.

Gazprom has approved an 840 billion ruble ($13.5 billion) investment program for 2015.

“None of the European partners we are working with have doubted the reliability of our company. Total, Gaz de France and other partners of Gazprom do not express any concern and are sure of stable long-term cooperation,” Kruglov added.

All the projects, including big ones, such as Turkish Stream and Power of Siberia would be implemented, according to the executive.

Gazprom can repay all its debts within a year if there’s a need. Dollar and euro earnings from exports of gas and other commodities account for a large part of the company’s revenues that’s why the company is in a good shape.

Kruglov also said Gazprom sells its currency earnings.

“We need rubles and we always sell practically all of our proceeds but for funds we need to make purchases outside Russia.”

Courtesy of RT

ETFs: RSX, ERUS

]]> /2015/02/19/gazprom-investment-stands-even-at-30-oil-price/feed/ 0 Gazprom etfalpha /2015/02/19/russias-gazprom-preparing-for-hong-kong-stock-exchange-listing/ /2015/02/19/russias-gazprom-preparing-for-hong-kong-stock-exchange-listing/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2015 07:32:58 +0000 /?p=6284 Continue reading →]]> Russia’s energy giant Gazprom expects to become one of the first Russian companies to have its shares listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, Gazprom’s financial director Andrey Kruglov said during an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday, TASS reports.

During the interview Andrey Kruglov said that in the near future that Russia and China may sign an agreement that would allow lifting all the restrictions for Russian companies to enter China’s stock exchange, according to the report from TASS.

Gazprom has already listed its shares on the Singapore stock exchange, in a first step towards shifting to the east, which contributed to an uninterrupted trade in Gazprom’s shares – when stock exchanges close in Europe, the work continues in Asia, Kruglov said.

In early February, China’s Dagong Global rating agency gave Gazprom the highest AAA credit rating for both local and foreign currencies, with a long-term stable outlook. This helped Gazprom get access to expanded listings on Asian stock exchanges.

Photo courtesy TASS © / Alexander Semyonov.

Egypt expects in the coming days to finalize agreements with four major foreign suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), including Russian energy giant Gazprom, the Al-Yaum As-Sabia daily news portal has reported.

The report quoted the chairman of the state-run Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Khaled Abdel Badie, as saying that a joint agreement is due to be signed with the foreign corporations that won a tender for the supplies of 14.1 million cubic meters.

Under the agreement, 74 shipments of natural gas will be sent to Egypt over two years. The first shipments are due to begin in April after the first bloc of a floating LNG terminal at the Ain Sokhna port on the Red Sea is put into operation.

Speaking on the deal with Gazprom, Abdel Badie said a delegation from the Russian energy giant arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to complete the negotiations on gas deliveries from Russia.

“Intensive meetings with the Russian delegation are underway where the sides discuss the number of shipments on which a contract could be signed, as well as the date of their delivery, prices and a range of technical issues,” the EGAS head was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Abdel Badie failed to detail when the final agreement with Gazprom could be inked, although hinting that the deal is expected this week. “Technical talks demand certain time to be concluded, and now the Egyptian and Russian sides seek to complete them as soon as possible,” he stressed.

In January, Egypt’s Oil Minister Sharif Ismail told Daily News Egypt that the country’s authorities had agreed with Gazprom to import 35 LNG shipments between 2015 and 2020. The annual amount could reach around 7 shipments, he said.

Egypt now faces the persistent shortages of natural gas. If earlier the country exported gas, now it has become the importer. This comes amid a reduction in production in the recent years due to the economic recession and Egypt’s two “revolutions” of 2011 and 2013, and also an increase in domestic demand.

In October, Egypt’s authorities announced a tender to import LNG from abroad. Seven companies, including British Petroleum, Vitol, Trafigura and Golar LNG, made offers.

Courtesy of TASS, © 2015 TASS