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Online Stock Market Trading Behind the decision facing President Bush on whether to make war on Iraq is a set of calculations that ought to be called the realpolitik of oil and Russia is at the center.

Yeltsin and the Congress were also deeply divided over the question of the balance of powers in Russia's proposed new constitution, era Russian Constitution.

Stock Investing Course Since Sept. 11, oil experts and politicians, including President Vladimir V. Putin, have been touting Russia and its burgeoning energy sector as the strategic antidote to the threat of another oil shock. The big fears are of war in the Middle East or a move orchestrated against Western interests by Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf heavyweights in OPEC, as unlikely as that has seemed for a long time. Many oil traders say there is a $3 to $5 premium on Middle Eastern oil already, because of war jitters.

More than 2, 000 power stations across the UK generate our energy. They are powered by gas, coal, and nuclear energy. Around 4% of our electricity comes from renewable energy installations including hydro power schemes and wind farms. The six largest energy suppliers in Britain are British Gas, Powergen, npower, Scottish & Southern Energy, ScottishPower and EDF Energy. Together they control 99% of the market. The market for renewable energy is growing all the time.

Stock Market Game But Russia has been engaged in a strategic migration to the West since Sept. 11 that buttresses the view of Russia as a critical partner to the West. And this is changing the psychology of both the marketplace and geopolitics.

The U.S president said that he supported a Russian proposal aimed at resolving the international standoff over Tehran's sensitive nuclear work. Bush insisted that Tehran should only be allowed to carry out nuclear activities under the condition that the material used to power its plants be manufactured in Russia and delivered to Iran under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and its waste be picked up by the Russians and returned to Russia. "I think that is a good plan. The Russians came up with the idea, and I support it".

Stock Investing Game Neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Putin would be impolitic enough to say he has been drawing up an insurance policy against allies the stable oil-producing kingdoms and sheikdoms that have abandoned the notion that oil is a weapon in global politics.

(AXcess News) Russia plans to start building floating nuclear power stations next year, possibly with the participation of China if domestic financing for the project is insufficient, a senior atomic energy official said. "We signed a contract with China on terms for a potential loan to help finance the project if needed", Alexander Polushkin, head of development at Russia's Rosenergoatom nuclear agency said.

Journal Prime Rate Street Wall But even if loyalty and alliance hold between Washington and its Persian Gulf friends, who can say what the effect would be if Saddam Hussein fired Scud missiles loaded with anthrax, mustard gas or some ghastly radiological substance onto the main Saudi oil loading terminal at Ras Tanura, causing panic and shutdown?

(AXcess News) Russia continues to support Iran's Nuclear program saying that any issues surrounding the nuclear plant and that government's position is between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, but that until such disputes are resolved Moscow will back the further development of the nuclear power plant. "Our common position is that we have to continue to deal with all the questions raised through the IAEA, " the International Atomic Energy Agency, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after holding talks here with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.

Stock Market News And since Sept. 11, there has been an additional, intangible element corroding Saudi-American relations something between uncertainty and mistrust over the heavy Saudi representation among Osama bin Laden's martyrs and the Saudi tolerance for the culture of jihad. The Saudis, for their part, resent the loss of American initiative to secure a Palestinian homeland, so evident under the first President Bush and during most of the Clinton years. Today, America and Saudi Arabia drink tea laced with the hemlock of unstated recriminations. "The psychological factor is there," an adviser to the royal family conceded.

Stock Investing Basics In the world of realpolitik, public reassurances about stable oil supplies count only up to a point. Capabilities matter, just as they will in any war with Iraq, where President Bush will have to weigh the risks of going it alone, or nearly so.

Stock Investing Software Last fall, President Bush told his energy secretary, Spencer Abraham, to add 108 million barrels of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But that offers the American market just one layer of shock absorption.

Stock Market Trading "The first principle of energy security is diversification," said Daniel Yergin, the oil markets analyst and historian, and by that measure Russia suddenly figures in international energy markets. The post-Soviet sag in gross oil production is steadily being reversed; indeed, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia this spring by pumping 7.28 million barrels a day in March. In annual figures, Russian oil exports, which bottomed at 3.16 million barrels a day in 1994, are expected to reach 5 million a day this year or next.

Stock Investing For Dummy "The Russian oil industry is growing at an amazing rate, and it is bringing in Western talent, technology and investment, but most of all it needs markets," said Sarah C. Carey, a Washington lawyer who is on the board of Russia's second-largest oil giant, Yukos, which wants to supply American refineries. By playing on the West's fear of disruption, Russia has found greater tolerance for its bully boy tactics in the oil markets since Sept. 11; the only sound from the Saudis has been the gnashing of teeth.

Stock Market Crash But here is the rub of the debate: Russia cannot supplant Saudi Arabia as the world's guarantor of stable oil supplies in a clutch. "They are at full production," the adviser to the Saudi royal family said, referring to Russia. "Everybody is at full production except Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Venezuela." And the lion's share of spare production remains a Saudi franchise.

Stock Investing Tip "The Russians know that, everybody knows that, and what we say is, just don't push us into a corner," he said, referring to fear that Russia might try to seize Saudi markets with overzealous production. The implied threat is that Saudi Arabia would flood the market to drive prices down, as it has before. Since Saudi oil is the cheapest to produce (about $2 a barrel, compared with $12 to $15 a barrel for new production oil), the House of Saud can best ride out low prices. "We have the elasticity to go down and still make money," the official said.

Stock Market Chart But Saudi Arabia's pre-eminence almost doesn't matter. Russia's surging oil industry and the growing exports from it and from the Caspian Sea region will add to the pool of non-OPEC production over the next decade. This, as Mr. Yergin points out, will make the global market more resistant to shock, particularly with Russia's new attitude toward the West in mind.

Online Stock Investing "A lot of things have come together now," Mr. Yergin said, not least that under Mr. Putin, Russia is firmly back on a pragmatic reform path. And while Saudi Arabia raised its oil output after Sept. 11 to insure calm markets, Russia has been changing policy in a larger way. It is merging Russian interests with European and Western security interests in the battle against terrorism, a strategic realignment that is deflating its old fears of NATO expansion and Western encirclement. Russian oil and gas giants are cleaning up their act, making them safer for Western investment, Mr. Yergin says.

Stock Market Crash Of And the latter-day version of the Great Game in Central Asia that so recently pitted Russia against Western encroachment suddenly looks more like a joint venture of shared interests. Russian oil companies are joining major Western ones in bringing Central Asia on line as a major oil producer. Russia wants to insure that a healthy portion of any new pipelines cross its land, but that is now less important because both Russia and the West are beginning to see the virtue of variety and collaboration in a world where demand will only go up with the growth of new economies.

Stock Investing For Beginner In Mr. Putin, Russia's new oil barons have a leader willing to press their interests. "Putin is a master of making more out of what he actually has," said James Richard, a co-author of an essay this spring in the journal Foreign Affairs that asserted that "the contest for energy dominance between the world's two largest oil exporters, Saudi Arabia and Russia," will have "fundamental consequences for the world's economy."

Finance Journal Personal Those consequences don't have to hurt the competitors, other analysts point out. If war in Iraq disrupts world markets, Russia and Saudi Arabia will both mobilize their production to fill in even though Russia doesn't have Saudi Arabia's vast reserves or the built-in spare capacity.

Stock Market Report Still, Russia wants new markets and will likely use its elbows to get them, so some testing of its strength against the Persian Gulf giants may be inevitable.

Finance Investing Stock Market ONE advantage for Russia is that what it lacks in oil reserves it makes up for in natural gas; it already provides a quarter of Europe's gas. In oil, Russia doesn't like the Saudi argument that it should wait its turn and take new market share from the rising demand for oil coming out of Asia. That argument might have more success if the pragmatic Mr. Putin were in full control of Russia's oil giants and their aggressive marketing strategies. On most days, instead, he happily rides the tiger of Russian oil expansion, hoping among other things that growth in energy will spur the rest of the economy.

Wall Street Journal Com The Sept. 11 attacks brought Russia into the Western camp with a seat, though not membership, in NATO for debates on Western security. So Mr. Putin's stature for playing Russia's version of realpolitik has only been enhanced. The question is, How will he play it? The answer almost certainly is that he will play for national interest, whatever is best to rebuild Russia's economy and a strong Russian state anchored in both Europe and Asia.

Stock Market Investing Advice This strategic partnership is based on mutual interest, the two-way street of any relationship. And just as the United States and Europe welcome the freedom of action they get from Russia's more muscular presence in the oil market, Mr. Putin welcomes new opportunities for Russia, above all that Russian interests should be taken into account on the big issues of war and commerce.

Street Trader Wall SO it is more than interesting that Mr. Putin has positioned himself between America and each of the states Mr. Bush counts as the "axis of evil." He has parlayed with North Korea's Kim Jong-il to press the Western agenda of arms control, while selling to both Koreas the concept of a common market that would connect them with Europe via Russia's rails.

Indian Stock Market In Iran, he has pursued the Russian power industry's interests, negotiating deals to sell nuclear power stations after Russian engineers complete their long delayed unit at Bushehr. As a partner with the West, he gets the right to argue Russian commercial interests in Iran, even as the Bush administration denounces Iran's support for terrorism and its quest for nuclear weapons.

Stock Investing Advice And in the confrontation with Iraq, Mr. Putin has adopted the American position that Saddam Hussein must open his borders to United Nations inspectors or face the consequences. Still, he has kept the lines open to Baghdad to hold onto multibillion-dollar contracts to develop new Iraqi oil fields. And Russia, whose equipment built Iraq's army, is likely to supply Saddam's successor, perhaps in competition with the West.

Free Journal Street Wall In other words, the concept of a resurgent Russian state providing energy security for the West is beginning to work to Russia's benefit, and the gains for Russia are palpable. In part because of President Putin's relationship with President Bush, the concept seems less threatening than most forecasts for Russia did a few years ago, even if Russia's new vibrance does not quite radiate to the grumpy shores of the Persian Gulf.

Stock Market Information By Patrick E. Tyler
New York Times - 8/4/2002

Topic: Petroleum Industry

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