Monthly Archive: October 2010

Oct 25 2010

MOL & Surgut Prediction Still Holding Water

Tweet The news was a shock…. Could I have been wrong? In an earlier post, I analyzed Hungarian and Russian wrestling moves in the area of gas. I predicted the Hungarian government wasn’t moving fast to release Surgutneftegaz from its holding in MOL. The news had Hungarian development minister,Tamas Fellegi, stating that the Hungarian government …

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Oct 16 2010

The Hungarian Cabbage Tax Policy

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Tweet I was watching my gulyas leves cook and reading through George Lang’s well written cookbook, George Lang’s Cuisine of Hungary, when I came across the section on ‘Potted Cabbage: Pickled or otherwise.’ The opening passage struck me. It turns out that understanding Hungarians’ passion for cabbage is also a great way to understand the …

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Oct 11 2010

Reaching Zero Carbon by 2050

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Tweet I was invited to give a presentation at the CEE Energy 2010 conference organized by EastEuro Link in Budapest September 30th and October 1, 2010. I decided to diverge from the typical conference presentation about energy developments and the need for cross border cooperation and how companies operate in the CEE and SEE region. Instead I …

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Oct 06 2010

Bulgaria: Oh – I have to pay for the pipeline?

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Tweet Will that be cash, credit or debit? Bulgaria appears to be ahead of most countries signing up for gas projects. Probably only for the fact that they are the only ones that might be able to squeeze a little extra money out of others. Sofia now wants a little extra help from the EU …

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Oct 04 2010

AGRI another Gas Acronym and White Elephant for CEE

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Tweet Supply diversification for securing energy is based on long term persistence. The recent agreement by Hungary to establish a project company to assess the viability of the LNG based Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romanian Interconnector (AGRI), may be an initial attempt. However, current gas projects cast doubt on the viability of this project. The project company is held …

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Oct 01 2010

Hungary’s Dual Monarchy Turns into Dual Pipelines

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Tweet Note: I’m reposting this as it originally appeared in the Energy Security blog, Feb 3, 2010. It still remains relevant in light of the appearance of yet another pipeline project. The roll-out of the gas pipelines continued last week as Hungary sought to add diversity to its gas supply. Diversity in this term refers …

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