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Russia signed a $15 billion agreement with Bulgaria on Friday to build a natural gas pipeline under the Black Sea. The deal will allow Russia to ship gas to Europe but bypass Turkey. According to The New York Times, analysts are worried that it could also make Europe more dependent on energy from Russia: The European Union has been trying to pull together its own pipeline project through Tukey, which would let it buy gas from Iran and Azerbaijan.
Russia may have been using more of its natural gas at home this past week to counter plunging temperatures in Siberia. According to Bloomberg, government officials were warning of temperatures as low as minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit in Siberia’s arctic north. But it is not only Siberia where the temperatures have been frigid. Lake Paliastomi, located in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, froze for the first time in 50 years and the temperature in Tbilisi plunged below zero. The region in warmer months has a subtropical climate and is known for growing wine, tea and citrus fruit. The weather in Krasnoyarsk looks to warm up to the single digits next week.
In business news, it looks as if Eclipse Aviation of New Mexico will be manufacturing its so-called very light jets in Russia. The company got a $100 million-plus investment from Amsterdam-based European Technology and Investment Research Center Aviation. In return for the investment, ETIRC has the right to pick the site for an additional plant. According to Aviation Week, the investment firm indicated that Ulyanovsk, Russia, is the top contender for the new facility. Manufacturing should begin in Russia in late 2009.
Also in aviation, Reuters reported on Monday that Russia agreed to let a subsidiary of Italy’s Finmeccanica to buy 25% plus one share of Russian aircraft maker Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Alenia Aeronautica will apparently also be involved in production Russia’s newest regional aircraft, the Superjet. That work can’t start soon enough. The Superjet is designed to be the successor to Russia’s longtime workhorse in the sky, the Tupolev 134. On December 31, Aeroflot took the last of its TU-134s out of service.
And finally, RIA-Novosti reported that Volvo plans to increase its auto sales in Russia by 42% this year. That would bring the Swedish companies total car sales in Russia to 30,000 vehicles. Volvo said its sales in Russia soared by 95% in 2007.
