From Russia, with Oil

While the Obama administration continues to stifle fossil fuel production in the hope — the delusional dream, actually — of replacing it by wind, solar and biofuel, other nations continue to act rationally. In particular, Russia is working assiduously to become the world’s major energy supplier. A recent WSJ article illustrates this.

The story reports that Russia’s state oil company Rosneft (rhymes with “raw theft”) has cut a huge deal with Italian energy firm Eni to exploit oil fields in the Arctic. In exchange for access to the huge Russian Arctic fields, Eni will give Rosneft stakes in Eni’s projects in Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Eni is getting a third share of a big pie, or more exactly, pies. The Fedynsky field (northwest of Murmansk) alone contains 19 billion barrels of oil. The total estimated recoverable reserves are about 36 billion barrels.

This deal is on top of an agreement that Russia signed last week with Exxon Mobil, which gives Rosneft a 30% share in development of fields in Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, and West Texas.

So Russia is wasting no time in developing the Arctic, while we block oil and gas drilling and funnel our state resources into solar projects that go bust. Thank God we have such enlightened leadership.