Tag: Black Sea

  • Russia: Asserting Influence in the Black Sea

    Russia: Asserting Influence in the Black Sea

    Stratfor.com
    September 15, 2009

    Summary

    The Russian maritime border patrol chief said Sept. 15 that Russia will detain any ships illegally entering the waters of Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia. Moscow’s warning is aimed at Georgia, which has used its navy to detain several vessels heading for Abkhazia. Now that Russia has officially threatened to capture ships, Georgia has lost another way to contain Abkhazia and will likely think twice before it detains a ship sailing to Abkhazia, as the Georgians are well aware that their navy is no match for the Russian navy.

    Analysis

    The head of Russia’s coastal division of the border guards service, otherwise known as the FSB coast guard, issued a warning Sept. 15 that it will detain any ships entering the maritime territory of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia without permission. The statement was directed specifically at Georgia, whose navy and coast guard have carried out numerous detainments of cargo ships traveling to Abkhazia via the Black Sea. The latest such interception occurred Aug. 15, when the Georgian coast guard detained a ship, with a Turkish captain and a crew of Azerbaijanis and Turks, carrying $2.4 million worth of fuel heading toward the Abkhazian port of Sukhumi. The crew was released on bail, but the Turkish captain was not released until Turkey’s foreign minister traveled to Georgia to appeal the decision personally. The governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan clearly were not happy about the detainment.

    In addition to irking the ship’s crew and their respective governments, the uptick in such naval detainments off the coast of the Black Sea has particularly angered Abkhazia ­ and by extension its security guarantor in Moscow. Such hostilities have been common ever since the Russo-Georgia war broke out in August 2008, when Moscow wrestled control over the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia. Russia has since established a significant military presence in these regions, and tensions have been high ­ both on land and sea ­ between Tbilisi and its breakaway republics. Following the incident on Aug. 15, Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh threatened to open fire on Georgian ships if Georgia continued such detainments. Georgia’s leadership dismissed these claims, saying that Abkhazia lacked the military capability to carry out such attacks, referring to the Abkhazian leader’s threats as a “bluff”.

    Georgia did acknowledge, however, that if someone did have the means to respond aggressively to such detainments, it would be Russia. Until this point, Moscow had been relatively quiet about the detainments, simply issuing statements for Georgia to stop intercepting ships. But this could have been Russia’s strategy of allowing the Georgians to dig themselves in a deeper hole before making a decisive threat. Now that Russia has officially threatened to seize ships, Georgia has lost another lever for containing the Abkhazians, as the Georgians are well aware that their navy is no match for the Russian navy.

    Most of the larger warships in Georgia’s small navy were lost during the war with Russia. What remains of an already hollow naval force are mostly gunboats, including some five patrol boats fitted with old Soviet 23mm anti-aircraft artillery pieces (possibly for use as naval guns). It is these gunboats and patrol vessels that likely would be involved in any security or interdiction effort off the coast.

    Just north of Abkhazia, the Russian FSB has provided coastal security forces of its own to the breakaway republic now recognized by two countries in addition to Russia. The size and disposition of these forces are unknown; Russia has simply stated that its forces patrolling the area will seize ships and “do everything to ensure the security of the Russian state, the Abkhaz state.” While it is possible that the FSB contingent is somewhat smaller than the remaining Georgian navy, it may have the overall capacity to be more active; especially considering that Russia has significant ports in the Black Sea in Novorossiysk and Sochi, it likely has better overall access to spare parts and support from Moscow.

    The bottom line is that the difference between the two forces is not so great that the finer points of a hypothetical tactical engagement could not push the outcome in either direction. But unlike Georgia, the FSB contingent has access to reinforcements in its much larger and more powerful Black Sea Fleet that could be quickly deployed to the waters off Abkhazia (the very ones used in the August 2008 war). The issue, however, is speed. Deploying a warship to sea unexpectedly can take as much as a day on the optimistic end of the spectrum, and transit to the Georgian coast would be the better part of another day. The amount of trouble Georgia could get itself into in the intervening time also merits consideration. Ultimately, Russia has a keen interest in keeping decisive military control over the situation. And in the end, without assistance from NATO ­ assistance clearly not coming ­ the Russian Black Sea Fleet, for all its challenges from maintenance to morale, is the dominant naval reality for Tbilisi.

    As such, these new developments may suggest that Georgia will now think twice before it detains a ship heading to Abkhazia. If it does not, there very well may be a much higher price to pay the next time.

  • PIRATES OF THE BLACK SEA

    PIRATES OF THE BLACK SEA

    Nezavisimaya Gazeta
    September 1, 2009

    Backed by Russia, Abkhazia promises to seize Georgian ships
    Author: Yuri Simonjan
    RUSSIA MIGHT FIND ITSELF DRAGGED INTO A CONFLICT BETWEEN
    TBILISI AND SUKHUMI AGAIN

    Backed by Russia, Abkhazia is prepared to challenge Georgia in the
    Black Sea. “They leave us no choice. We will seize Georgian
    ships,” Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said. Georgia had
    seized and arrested several ships on the run to and from Abkhazia
    last month.
         Tbilisi in its turn only emphasized the resolve to board and
    detain all vessels entering territorial waters of Georgia,
    including the Abkhazian part, without permit.
         Sukhumi turned to Moscow and immediately obtained its promise
    of assistance. Ships navigating territorial waters of Abkhazia
    will be protected by Russian and Abkhazians border guards. “All
    attention was focused on the Abkhazian-Georgian land border. The
    situation at sea requires attention too,” Shamba announced.
         The Georgian Coast Guard detained 23 ships for “violation of
    the entry regulations” this year and nearly 70 over the last four
    years. The ships are almost always Turkish, Ukrainian, Russian,
    and Greek.
         “Seizing ships in neutral waters, Georgia commits acts of
    piracy. Our appeals to the UN and EU remain unanswered which only
    encourages Georgia. Tbilisi must have forgotten that Georgian
    ships pass us by on the way to Ukrainian, Bulgaria, and Greece and
    that we can respond in kind,” Shamba said.
         The minister said that the situation had been more or less
    tolerable until US Vice President Josef Biden’s visit to Georgia
    this spring. “The Georgian authorities must have been given
    assurances of some sort,” Shamba assumed. He announced that
    Georgia’s actions constitute a violation of the settlement
    agreement reached with the European Union’s help.
         Official Tbilisi pays no heed to Sukhumi’s protestations. It
    maintains that sailing into Abkhazian ports without authorization
    from the central government of Georgia is a violation that will
    not be tolerated.
         Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister David Dzhalagania said at
    the press conference this Monday that participation of Russia
    would be a height of cynicism. He added that Russia had already
    assaulted Georgia once.
         “Russia’s attempts to protect trespassers in the Georgian
    territorial waters will be appraised and treated as piracy.
    Freight traffic to Abkhazia without Tbilisi’s permit is a gross
    violation of the Georgian legislation,” State Minister for
    Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said.
         Military expert Irakly Sesiashvili said that Tbilisi was
    trying to bite more than it could possibly chew. Attempts to
    prevent Russian ships from entering the local waters will lead to
    a dangerous confrontation or Georgia will have to cry uncle.
    Sesiashvili said the international community alone could settle
    the issue.

  • Turkey and Russia Conclude Energy Deals

    Turkey and Russia Conclude Energy Deals

    a1Published: August 6, 2009

    ISTANBUL — Russia and Turkey concluded energy agreements on Thursday that will support Turkey’s drive to become a regional hub for fuel transshipments while helping Moscow maintain its monopoly on natural gas shipments from Asia to Europe.

    Turkey granted the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom use of its territorial waters in the Black Sea, under which the company wants to route its so-called South Stream pipeline to gas markets in Eastern and Southern Europe.

    In return, a Russian oil pipeline operator agreed to join a consortium to build a pipeline across the Anatolian Peninsula, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and Gazprom affirmed a commitment to expand an existing Black Sea gas pipeline for possible transshipment across Turkey to Cyprus or Israel.

    Energy companies in both countries agreed to a joint venture to build conventional electric power plants, and the Interfax news agency in Russia reported that Prime MinisterVladimir V. Putin offered to reopen talks on Russian assistance to Turkey in building nuclear power reactors.

    The agreements were signed in Ankara, the Turkish capital, in meetings between Mr. Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who has joined Mr. Putin on several energy projects, attended the ceremony. The Italian company Eni broke ground on the trans-Anatolian oil pipeline this year.

    While the offer of specific pipeline deals and nuclear cooperation represented a new tactic by Mr. Putin, the wider struggle for dominance of the Eurasian pipelines is a long-running chess match in which he has often excelled.

    As he has in the past, Mr. Putin traveled to Turkey with his basket of tempting strategic and economic benefits immediately after a similar mission by his opponents. A month ago, European governments signed an agreement in Turkey to support the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline, which would compete directly with the South Stream project.

    By skirting Russian territory, the Nabucco pipeline would undercut Moscow’s monopoly on European natural gas shipments and the pricing power and political clout that come with it. That may explain why Nabucco, which cannot go forward without Turkey’s support, has encountered a variety of obstacles thrown up by the Russian government, including efforts to deny it vital gas supplies in the East and a customer base in the West.

    Turkey and other countries in the path of Nabucco have been eager players in this geopolitical drama, entertaining offers from both sides. Turkish authorities have even tried, without much success, to leverage the pipeline negotiations to further Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, while keeping options with Russia open, too.

    “These countries are more than happy to sign agreements with both parties,” Ana Jelenkovic, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said in a telephone interview from London. “There’s no political benefit to shutting out or ceasing energy relations with Russia.”

    Under the deal Mr. Putin obtained Thursday, Gazprom will be allowed to proceed with seismic and environmental tests in Turkey’s exclusive economic zone, necessary preliminary steps for laying the South Stream pipe, Prime Minister Erdogan said at a news conference.

    After the meeting, Mr. Putin said, “We agreed on every issue.”

    The trans-Anatolian oil pipeline also marginally improves Russia’s position in the region. The pipeline is one of two so-called Bosporus bypass systems circumventing the straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which are operating at capacity in tanker traffic.

    The preferred Western route is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which allows companies to ship Caspian Basin crude oil to the West without crossing Russian territory; the pipeline instead crosses the former Soviet republic of Georgia and avoids the crowded straits by cutting across Turkey to the Mediterranean.

    Russia prefers northbound pipelines out of the Caspian region that terminate at tanker terminals on the Black Sea. The success of this plan depends, in turn, on creating additional capacity in the Bosporus bypass routes. Russia is backing two such pipelines.

    Mr. Putin’s offer to move ahead with a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Turkey suggests a sweetening of the overall Russian offer on energy deals with Turkey, while both Western and Russian proposals are on the table.

    The nuclear aspect of the deal drew protests. About a dozen Greenpeace protesters were surrounded by at least 200 armored police officers in central Ankara on Thursday.

    Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow.

    The New York Times
  • Turkey and Brazil to Explore Oil in the Black Sea

    Turkey and Brazil to Explore Oil in the Black Sea

    Turkey and Brazil to Explore Oil in the Black Sea

    Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 100
    May 26, 2009 09:43 AM Age: 12 hrs
    Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Energy, Turkey, Latin America
    By: Saban Kardas

    On May 20-23 Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Turkey. Bilateral economic ties were an important element on da Silva’s agenda, who was accompanied by government ministers and leading businessmen. The visit highlighted the prospects for improving cooperation between the two emerging economies, which complements Ankara’s efforts to diversify its economic and political relations.

    During his first day in Istanbul, da Silva met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bilateral relations (ANKA, May 20). The following day, he participated in the Turkish-Brazilian Business Council organized by Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK). In his address, he said that the two countries had failed to realize their full potential for cooperation. Noting that each county offered unique opportunities, he urged the business community to explore further investment opportunities. Miguel Jorge, Brazil’s Minister of Development, Industry & Foreign Trade, also noted that although the trade volume between the two countries quadrupled since 1999 and had reached $1,5 billion, this was still unsatisfactory. The Turkish Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek and the head of Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), Rifat Hisarciklioglu, also suggested both economies were “rising stars” within the global economy. They highlighted many areas for enhancing economic ties including energy, construction, automotive, household appliances and tourism (www.deik.org.tr, May 21).

    In an interview with the Turkish press, da Silva described the current low-key status of the bilateral relationship as absurd, and called on prompt action to reverse this trend. He added that multi-billion dollar economic investment plans, will ensure continued growth within the Brazilian economy and facilitate its rapid recovery from the global financial crisis. He noted that after coming to power, he prioritized strengthening the country’s relations with South America, and then launched new initiatives focused on Africa and Asia. He presented his contacts with Turkey as an extension of those efforts. Before arriving in Ankara, da Silva had also visited China and Saudi Arabia as part of the same tour (Hurriyet Daily News, May 21, 22).

    In Ankara da Silva met his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, and agreed to boost bilateral trade (www.cankaya.gov.tr, May 22). The most tangible result of his visit was in the energy sector. Following their meeting, Gul and da Silva announced that the state-owned petroleum companies, Turkey’s TPAO and Brazil’s Petrobras, signed an agreement for the exploration of oil in the Black Sea, a project estimated to be worth $800 million. Petrobras, which has invested $130 million in Turkey since 2006, will provide an additional $300 million by 2010. The TPAO will also earmark $500 million for offshore drilling (Anadolu Ajansi, May 22).

    The Turkish government has hoped that the hydrocarbon reserves beneath the Black Sea might meet its growing energy requirements and reduce its dependence on imports. In recent years, the TPAO has stepped up its oil and gas exploration drilling in several sites in the Black Sea, through joint projects with international companies (EDM, June 17, 2008). The experience of Petrobras in offshore drilling plays an important role in Turkey’s decision, while the Brazilian government views this investment as a step toward asserting itself as a major global player.

    Jorge Zelada, Petrobras’s international business director, said that they decided to take a risk and invest in oil exploration. He added that based on the initial prognoses, they are hopeful about finding oil (Sabah, May 22). According to the TPAO’s estimates, there are 10 billion barrels of oil and 1.5 trillion cubic meters of gas in the Black Sea. The TPAO plans to conduct drilling in different sites in collaboration with Petrobras and ExxonMobil over the next three years. If the results are positive, oil production might begin by 2017 (Hurriyet, May 23).

    Turkey and Brazil’s prospects for developing an energy partnership transcend fossil fuels. To achieve energy independence, Turkey has considered investing in alternative energy sources. Given Brazil’s leading role in bio-diesels, joint investments in ethanol-based fuels was also on the agenda. De Silva proposed that Turkey and Brazil might collaborate in agriculture, to produce ethanol in Africa (Radikal, May 23).

    The Brazilian delegation was also keen to promote closer aviation cooperation. One representative from Brazil’s aircraft producer Embraer confirmed that they were already in contact with Turkish firms to access this market. Although the head of Turkish Airlines said that they currently had no joint projects with Embraer, he did not rule out such future options (Dunya, May 21). Jorge also explained that Brazil will welcome projects in which both countries can produce jets jointly (Today’s Zaman, May 22).

    Both countries are major powers within their respective regions, and as emerging economies, their markets offer lucrative business opportunities. Equally important, given their location, they also provide access to the surrounding markets. However, although they have attracted foreign investments, their level of bilateral trade remains low. To sustain their economic growth and reduce the impact of the global financial crisis, both countries are seeking to penetrate new markets. In particular, Turkey wants to sign a free trade agreement with Mercusor to eradicate the duties on Turkish exports to South America, which has been long delayed. President Gul and the representatives of the Turkish business sector, solicited President da Silva’s assistance to conclude this deal. If de Silva can accelerate these negotiations and ensure that the deal is concluded in time for Erdogan’s visit to Brazil next year, it will mark a significant achievement for the Turkish government.

    https://jamestown.org/program/turkey-and-brazil-to-explore-oil-in-the-black-sea/