Global Policy Forum

The construction of the Russian-German Nord Stream pipeline is driving a political wedge between Eastern and Western Europe. The new pipeline, which will run along the bed of the Arctic Sea, will allow Russia to export natural gas straight to Western Europe, thus bypassing Central and Eastern European states. With Western and Eastern states no longer depending on the same gas supply, former Soviet satellites are concerned that Russia will increasingly use energy blackmail against them and get away with it. But their fears - as well as considerations of European unity - are secondary in the struggle over resources by national and corporate interests.  (New York Times)

Two competing pipelines are under construction to bring natural gas to Europe. US-backed Nabucco and Russian-sponsored South Stream are both scheduled to be finished by 2015. The US is supporting Nabucco in the hope of bypassing Russia and ending Europe's dependence on Russian gas, which already represents 26% of the European gas market. The energy game is a key element of the geopolitical dynamic in the region, looming over every issue from sanctions on Iran to Turkey's accession to the EU. (TomDispatch)

Thirty-seven defendants from the company that once was France's biggest company face trial involving the embezzlement of some $US200 million. Elf's executives paid tens of millions of dollars of bribes to secure contracts in oil-rich countries. (Nzoom)

The World Bank plans to support an oil pipeline project with the help of unlimited Turkish security protection against "terrorists." Kurdish human rights groups argue that Turkey may use the ambiguous language of terrorism to commit human rights violations. (Bretton Woods Project)