Total CEO uses sense and logic to explain European energy cooperation with Russia

Finally some more sanity to the entirely fabricated and U.S. fueled Ukraine crisis. This time coming from Total Chairman and CEO, Christophe de Margerie.  The French oil and gas company’s CEO, in an interview with Reuters, dispelled main stream media’s myth and propaganda campaign centered around Russia, Ukraine, energy and Europe’s connection to all of it.

Mr. de Margerie tells Reuters that…

Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and focus instead on making those deliveries safer, including options to bypass Ukraine.

Which coincidently is exactly what the South Stream gas pipeline does, and is also why Washington is using all its economic, financial and other persuasive powers to halt South Stream construction. It would be a shame to have wasted all that U.S. taxpayer money pumped into destabilising Ukraine only to have the entire shebang rendered useless by bypassing gas delivery towards Europe via the Black Sea, underwater route.

The Total CEO does not hide his support for safer energy options [South Stream] with a reliable and trusted partner in Russia as better serving European citizens energy needs, over the instability and price hikes that the current, U.S. driven policy towards Russia advocates.

If Europe continues to follow the White House’s lead on Ukraine and Russia, than de Margerie warns Europe could see a repeat of a big gas supply crisis this winter.

“We will have a problem this winter if there is a cut in supplies and if it is cold – that is obvious,” De Margerie told Reuters in an interview.

“There are plenty of solutions that are being suggested to avoid the Ukrainian problem, including by Russia,” he said, citing as an example the Nord Stream pipeline built in 2011 under the Baltic Sea to Germany, which bypassed Ukraine.

“(Nord Stream) was built to avoid passing through Ukraine, not to avoid Russian gas,” he said.

“Can we live without Russian gas in Europe? The answer is no. Are there any reasons to live without it? I think – and I’m not defending the interests of Total in Russia – it is a no.”

De Margerie likewise dismissed all the Brussels political hoopla to create a European Commission for EU member states to pool their bargaining power to negotiate gas contracts with Russia and prevent Moscow’s influence on oil and gas prices…

“Should there be a central purchasing body? I don’t think so,” he said. “Today Russian gas prices are in line with international market prices. They’ve even cut their prices to keep customers.”

In the end, European officials will have to decide whether it makes sense to continue supporting a U.S. policy that backs a neo-nazi government in Ukraine or start to actually govern in the best interests of their citizens and constituents, opting for reliable and safer energy solutions. De Margerie explains…

“You hear people say we have got to protect ourselves from Ukraine and then they talk about Russia. This is not the same thing… Are we going to build a new Berlin Wall?”

“Russia is a partner and we shouldn’t waste time protecting ourselves from a neighbour … What we are looking to do is not to be too dependent on any country, no matter which. Not from Russia, which has saved us on numerous occasions.”

Any deliberate reduction in imports from Russia would result in more expensive supplies from other producers which end users would not like, he added.

Perhaps disrupting neighbourly ties between Russia and the EU is exactly what the Neo-Conservative cabal running the show in Washington wanted when Victoria Nuland handed out her cookies in Maiden. With Russia out of the picture, Washington would gladly step in to provide lower quality, more expensive fracked oil and gas to European citizens.

References:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/total-russia-idINL6N0PI48820140708