By John Helmer in Moscow Russians go to court for to oust CEO Dudley. In the middle of 17th century Paris, Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (that’s the real one, not the 19th century stage character), wrote a fantasy about a voyage to the moon. To get there, he describes several contrivances, in addition to his […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, July 20th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the old days, before artillery fire could be directed with precision, the only way an attacking force could breach a fortified gate or wall was to manually deliver a large package of gunpowder; fix it to the target; light the fuze; and run away. Our word for the modern […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 27th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russians out-play Saudis as Gazprom calls for OPEC replacement. The view from British Petroleum’s front-window on to St. James Square in London is an irony BP Chairman Peter Sutherland and Chief Executive Tony Hayward have not noticed; at least not yet. In the middle of the gated garden, there is […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Profit defeats politics in Ukraine’s bid to make crude oil run uphill. In the annals of topographic desperation, it is unclear which foolish Duke of York did this to his army, but not even the nursery rhyme leaves any doubt about what he did: Oh, the grand old Duke of […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 2nd, 2008
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News analysis in Business Day, Johannesburg By John Helmer in Moscow A campaign of smears and innuendo linking Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to powerful Russian oil interests, launched last week by a newspaper in London, has drawn a withering counter-attack by Gennady Timchenko, controlling shareholder of Gunvor, and one of the leading oil traders […]

by John Helmer - Friday, May 23rd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow The largest oil concession in the world is changing direction as Glencore may be losing out in Russia again. Announcements last week from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin indicate that the movement of Russian oil for export is now to be supervised by Putin’s former chief Kremlin aide, Igor Sechin, who […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian energy giant makes gains in Africa and Europe The days when American journalists wandered around Tripoli, acting as covert target spotters for the US Air Force to target Muammar Qaddafi for assassination, are gone. The maverick Berber has outlived, outwitted, outsourced, and outprofited five US presidents, four Russian heads […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 17th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Nigerians try to wind up international gas companies against Gazprom “threat” Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer and Russia’s dominant enterprise, is not ready for mega-deals with Nigeria, executives told Mineweb this week in Moscow. They also warned the Nigerian Gas Company and government officials against manipulating Gazprom as a […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, February 21st, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow There’s a well-known Russian maxim, which can be roughly translated as: “Pull out your nose, your tail will get stuck; pull out your tail, your nose will get stuck.” The sticking place, it’s understood, is mud; murk; one unpleasantly adhesive predicament, or another. You might say this is what has […]

by John Helmer - Monday, February 18th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Through the Nabucco pipeline project, Bulgaria decides to reap the benefit of Europe’s energy demand. The fat lady has finally sung — the operatically named Nabucco gas pipeline project, intended to carry Central Asian gas to European markets, avoiding Russia, appears to have been knocked out by an agreement between […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
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