Putin's plan shuts out US oil Giants

[undergroundpanther]

President Vladimir Putin is set to keep US oil companies out of a lucrative gas field in the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington.

The Russian leader is expected to favour Norwegian companies and reject bids by America's Chevron and ConocoPhillips after failing to secure backing from the United States for his country's attempt to join the World Trade Organisation.

The tit-for-tat snub will be a blow to US companies scrambling for access to Russia's huge gas reserves at a time of high energy prices. It comes after Putin failed to resolve differences with US President George Bush over trade and human rights at the G8 conference in St Petersburg last week.


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1826629,00.html

[Joanne98]

1. YES!

[Skidmore]

2. Those tattered old banshees remaining from t he Seven Sisters

will destroy the world. Expect more war. Lots of it.

[izzie]

3. Guess Bush rubbed the wrong neck,

If the oil people do not get what they want all hell will brake out

[Skidmore]

4. He sure as heck didn't do very well in the soul gazing department,

did he? Keerist, Putin used to be head of the KGB. * was the hobbyist "leader" of the Astros and the figurehead governor of a state filled with whackos. You know after that press conference where * reported his analysis of Putin based on soulgazing, that Putin laughed his ass off all the way back to Russia.

[izzie]

6. Bush always seems to have these 'gut' feels. It is crazy

He looks into eyes, hearts, souls, body languages agenda is really nuts. Wonder where he got all that stuff from. Also has he ever figured out that body movement in different societies mean different things than what it may mean in USA. Their was a lot of this in Woodward book and others about him doing this so I guess it is true. You would think we were all mating birds or some such thing.

[Submariner]

5. A DU rep will be there

I was picked up by Statoil as senior ecologist and I go to Murmansk in 2 weeks.

http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/04/21/gazpromshtokman.shtml

Matter of fact I was asking for info a couple of days ago here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1703330&mesg_id=1703330

Anyone with traveling/working in Russia info?