The Maritime Executive: The east-to-west pipeline game
Pipelines connect the energy rich with the energy poor, essentially tying them together forever and in the process giving the transited lands a crucial role to play. In the gas pipeline game being played by Russia, the former Soviet satellite states and Europe, everyone appears set on upping the stakes this winter. Which explains why the ubiquitous Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister and, as now announced, the certain, again, next President of Russia, officiated on September 6 as the Nord Stream pipeline started pumping “technical gas” (necessary to build pressure) in advance of pumping gas directly from Russia to its German destination via a route that bypasses troublesome former Soviet states like the Ukraine. The pipeline achieved this feat by being laid offshore and traversing the Baltic Sea.
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