GERMANY FINANCES RUSSIAN ENERGY MONOPOLIES
Strategic threat to Western Europe and USA. Support of Nuclear Iran
Dateline 6th December 2004
INTRODUCTION
While Germany joins France and Britain to persuade Iran to stop investing in nuclear weaponry the German State refuses US help in non weapons grade uranium, manufactures its own nuclear material for nuclear weapons and collaborates with Russia in supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. While paying lip service to EU competition and privatisation policies Germany offers Russian finance to build up State energy monopolies. Just another predictable day in German Europe! The massive German loans to Moscow over recent decades, the dominant presence of German banks in Russia and the collaboration of German energy corporations all reveal a familiar historical pattern in relations between Berlin and Moscow. (Several years ago, President Putin of Russia was knighted in a castle in Germany, close to Berlin)
The “Drang nach Osten” is costing a lot of money but the monopoly profits and energy hold on Western Europe could pay big geopolitical and financial dividends!
Needless to say the pursuit of monopolistic, State owned energy in the East is a direct contradiction of everything the “European Common Market” and indeed the whole of the Anglo American approach to liberalising (in the political and economic sense) of the former communist empire is supposed to stand for. It could also lead, once the EU is confronted by such an illiberal energy monopoly as a supplier, to the justification of just such concentrations of power in the West “to counter it”!
We reproduce here a report from our German colleagues at German Foreign Policy:
BERLIN / MOSCOW. Deutsche Bank is calling on Moscow to nationalise most of its oil industry and is advising the Russian energy giant Gazprom on its expansion. Gazprom is preparing to take over almost all its Russian energy competitors. In addition Gazprom (which also has immense oil resources as well as gas) is planning further acquisitions in the East to finance which Deutsche Bank is offering its services.
The German Russian Industry Association is aiming to monopolise European energy supplies and is putting the EU’s “trade partner” in Moscow under pressure to comply. In order to finance these enormous undertakings the German Government is setting up a German industrial consortium consisting of companies like Aliianz, Siemens and Dresdner Bank.
In October Deutsche Bank provided Gazprom with a loan of US$200 million as a first step in their support for the forthcoming expansion(1). Gazprom wants to take over the core business of the Russian Oil Company YUKOS which is being put up for auction on 19th December (2) by the Russian Government (Its previous private sector status having been attacked by the State and its directors imprisoned – ed).
Gazprom has already acquired the State corporation ROSNEFT and the two private companies SIBNEFT and SURGUTNEFTEGAS are said to be on the shopping list. Gasprom is responsible for 94% of Russian gas production and controls all the internal Russian gas pipelines. By taking over the above mentioend oil companies Gasprom would also control 170m tons of Russia’s total annual production of 450m tons – the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia – and would become the largest oil company in the world far surpassing American and British oil companies like Exxon Mobil, ChevronTaxaco, Shell and BP (3).
Think big
The Russians’ expansion is sharpening the international competition for energy resources. In Georgia (where German political and economic intervention has been considerable) there are gas reserves. The Georgian Economics Minister has given Gazprom a list of its gas assets and is waiting for “Suggestions from the Company, in particular commercial offers” (4) In Turkmenistan which has considerable oil resources and the fourth largest gas reserves in the world the Russian company is negotiating further investments and a “Russian/Turkmenistan Partnership in oil and Gas” (5) In Hungary Gazprom is seeking a share in the gas market in which the German firm Eon is also a participant. (6). Russian interests reach as far as India where the Kremlin has just concluded a Russian Indian Partnership in Energy. (7) In Britain Gazprom wants to become through German companies who already have a considerable presence (8), one of the leading suppliers of gas. (Note the use of privatised competitive markets to make profits for their own increasingly nationalised State controlled monopolies! In this the Franco German political economy is little different from Putin’s! – ed)
Strategic Interest
According to German plans (which foresee a strategic partnership between Berlin and Moscow in order to reduce the influence of Western corporations in the supply of energy to the EU) a German financial consortium will secure Russian resources for the long term benefit of German industry. Apart from the leading corporations in the German financial world leading energy corporations will be involved – like Eon and RWE (9). Eon is already involved with its 6.4% share in Gazprom. The Head of Germany’s biggest gas concern Ruhrgas, Bergmann, is the only foreigner on Gazprom’s board. The German energy corporations have been trying for years to have access to Russian energy resources. (10) Now with this finance consortium the grab for selected Russian oil and gas is to be accelerated. Leading civil servants in the German Economics Ministry have confirmed the “strategic interest of the German State” to participate in future energy production (as in the Barent Sea).
German Russian Nuclear Co-operation
Especially sensitive is the strategic cooperation between Berlin and Moscow in the nuclear activities of Gazprom. The latter has just acquired a majority stake in the only Russian exporter of nuclear technology (Atomstroieksport). In addition to building nuclear installations in China and India it is building a nuclear plant in Iran which the USA believes is capable of producing weapons grade uranium. (11)
The Russian Government has announced it will further actively support Iran’s nuclear ambitions. (12)
German foreign policy thereby involves itself in new contradictions. The strategic energy deal with Gazprom makes it a direct promoter of Iranian nuclear policy while on the other hand Berlin (with Britain and France!) is acting as a middleman between Iran and the USA – which is threatening force if Teheran continues its independent nuclear policy.
German economic circles assume that the conflict will be insoluble as soon as the Russian-German “Energy Partnership” further restricts the geopolitical scope for US power. (13)
1) s. Deutsche Bank rät Gazprom zur Expansion, Die Welt 30.11.2004; und: Deutsche Bank empfiehlt russischem Gasriesen Milliarden-Deals, Frankfurter Rundschau 30.11.2004. S. auch De-facto-Achse
2) s. auch Unser Mann in Moskau
3) s. Gazprom will das Herz von Yukos. Russischer Energiekonzern strebt Monopol im Öl- und Gasbereich an, Die Welt 01.12.2004; und: Gazprom greift nach dem Öl von Yukos, Süddeutsche Zeitung 01.12.2004
4) s. Gasprom ist an Beteiligungen an georgischen Gasobjekten interessiert, www.russland.ru 01.11.2004. S. auch Bitte um Eingliederung
5) s. In Aschchabad wurde ein turkmenisch-russisches Erdöl- und Gas-Forum abgehalten, www.russland.ru 16.11.2004. S. auch ,,Ausbaufähige” Beziehung
6) s. Gasprom will Anteile an ungarischer Öl- und Gasfirma MOL kaufen, www.russland.ru 13.11.2004. S. auch Brückenkopf
7) s. Putin: Gasprom ist Kandidat für Erkundung und Erschließung von Öl- und Gasvorkommen in Indien, www.russland.ru 03.12.2004; und: Indien ist an der Erkundung und Erschließung von Erdöllagerstätten in Russland interessiert, www.russland.ru 03.12.2004. S. auch Partner Indien
8) s. Gasprom will Gaslieferungen nach Großbritannien erweitern, www.russland.ru 17.11.2004. S. auch In guten Händen
9) Finanz-Konsortium soll Öl- und Gasimporte sichern, Berliner Zeitung 30.11.2004; und: Kanzler will an Russlands Energievorräte. Deutsche Wirtschaft soll sich an Lagerstätten beteiligen, Berliner Zeitung 30.11.2004. S. auch Strategische Projekte (II)
10) s. Zugriff gesichert und BASF: Zugriff auf die größten Energiereserven der Welt
11) s. Gazprom schließt heiklen Atomdeal ab, Spiegel online 15.10.2004; und: Gazprom Buys Into Iran Nuke Controversy, www.daneshjoo.org 18.10.2004
12) s. Kernbrennstoffe aus Russland für Iraner garantiert, www.russland.ru 16.11.2004; und: Russland wird auch weiter an der Entwicklung der Atomenergetik Irans zu friedlichen Zwecken aktiv teilnehmen, www.russland.ru 19.11.2004
13) s. Zwei Feuer
