Landscapes of paradox: Public discourses and policies in poland's relationship with the nord stream pipeline

Geopolitics

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 1-21

  Bouzarovski, Stefan ^a   Konieczny, Marcin ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF GDA SK   (Poland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE; ENERGY PLANNING; ENERGY POLICY; GAS INDUSTRY; GAS PIPELINE; HYDROCARBON RESOURCE; NATURAL GAS; OFFSHORE ENGINEERING; POLICY STRATEGY; RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT; STATE ROLE; STRATEGIC APPROACH;

POLAND;

EID: 77951026832     PISSN: 14650045     EISSN: 15573028     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14650040903420362     Document Type: Article

References (130)

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61. Gasunie became a fourth shareholder of the pipelline in 2008, by purchasing a 9 percent stake. This reduced Wintershall and E.ON's stakes to 20 percent. In early 2009, it was announced that the French company GDF Suez is also interested in buying a minority stake in the pipeline ('Nord Stream Consultations Enter Final Straight', Vedomosti, 6 March 2009)
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63. Initially the pipeline consortium was planning to build a service platform directly above the compressor station which lies midway through the pipeline route (at a location 68 km northeast of the Swedish island of Götland).
64. However, these plans were abandoned in response to fierce environmental opposition in Sweden ('Nord Stream Withdraw to Build Service Platform', Marinelink.com, available at , accessed 14 Aug. 2008.
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66. 'Sweden Demands Further Clarification About Pipeline', Kauppalehti, 13 Feb. 2008.
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70. expert interview in Gdansk, 18 April 2008.
71. See note 31.
72. See Dempsey (note 3).
73. G. Raguzina, 'While Nord Stream Embraces Russia, Estonia Will Not Embrace Nord Stream', 2 Nov. 2007, available at , accessed 10 Aug. 2008.
74. See 'Nord Stream Withdraw' (note 31).
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80. Among other points, the report stated that the Nord Stream consortium had considered various routes and concluded that 'the off-shore route turns out to be the more environmentally friendly' since a land-based route would 'cross ecologically sensitive areas on land and possibly conflict with alternative land use' ('Nord Stream Pipeline Presents Project Report', Deutche Welle, 11 Aug. 2008, available at , accessed 14 Aug. 2008).
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85. Interview with official in Polish presidential cabinet, Warsaw, 5 June 2008.
86. Ibid., p. 30.
87. Ibid., p. 44.
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90. For a further discussion, see Heinrich (note 47).
91. Ibid., p. 32.
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93. In fact, there is no such thing as a formal EU 'energy solidarity' principle, although it was foreseen, inter alia, by a European Commission Green Paper titled 'A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy' published on 8 March 2006.
94. Polish politicians have constantly called for this principle to be established at the EU level (see, for example, 'Poland Wants a Mandate Emphasising Energy Solidarity with EU', Europe Energy, Feb. 2008, available at
95. For a broader critique of the EU's inability to formulate a common energy policy see Kovačovská L., European Union's Energy (In)Security -Dependency on Russia (Prague: Association for International Affairs 2007).
96. Q. Perret, 'The EU, Russia and Gas: Intimations of Mortality and Supremacy of Politics', Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review 2006/18 (2006) pp. 167-181.
97. Sikorski et al. (note 1).
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115. This report cites 'Stratfor Commentary', who noted that as a result of the lack of export partners for the Odessa-Brody pipeline, 'Kiev found itself saddled with a white elephant rusting picturesquely in the Ukrainian countryside'.
116. An EU-supported multinational consortium including Polish Lithuanian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani shareholders has been working on plans for the Polish section of the line since 2007, but with little visible progress.
117. 'Kaczyski, Yushchenko Agree on Odessa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk', New Europe, 21 April 2008.
118. 'Polish Gas Supplier' (note 66).
119. also see Heinrich (note 47).
120. 'Poland, Denmark Sign Deal For Gas Pipeline', Pipeline and Gas Journal, Aug. 2001, available at , accessed 26 May 2008.
121. 'Bartimpex Hopes to Build New Gas Pipeline by 2006', Warsaw Business Journal, 27 Feb. 2006.
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124. 'Gas Crisis Focuses Minds on New Routes', Russia Today, 9 Jan. 2009.
125. Y. Humber, 'Belarus Seeks to Double Russian Gas Flows, Challenging Ukraine', Bloomberg, 13 March 2009.
126. 'Poland Looks Forward to Second Yamal Gas Pipeline', Polish Market Online, 10 March 2009, available at , accessed 12 March 2009.
127. See, for example, 'Energy Strategy to Avoid Russia', Euronews, 19 Feb. 2009.
128. As pointed out by Heinrich (note 47), 'The analysed conflicts converged; conflicts about the Yamal and bypass pipelines were the precondition and trigger for the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline leading to the next conflict' (p. 85).
129. Pasko (note 30).
130. For a wider discussion, see, for example, A. Pottage, 'Power as an Art of Contingency: Luhmann, Deleuze, Foucault', Economy and Society 27/1 (1998) pp. 1-27.