Natural gas: the Russia-Ukraine question

Reverse flow deliveries of gas to Ukraine have not ended Russian imports, but they have created price competition, I argued in this presentation on 14 October at the first Ukraine Gas Forum.

The global drivers of fossil fuel consumption. Is the IPCC looking at them the right way?

I gave this presentation at a seminar on "How fossil fuel consumption shapes the lives communities lead" on Thursday 1 October at UCL. Download here. (This is part of my research on the global history of fossil fuel consumption.)

Ukraine: the end of post-Soviet gas pricing

My article in Oxford Energy Forum, no. 101, downloadable here.

"Cut up Khrushchev for sausages!" A history lesson for the New York Times

My article about the workers' uprising in 1962 in Novocherkassk, southern Russia, on the LeftEast web site here, responds to the ludicrous claim by a New York Times editorial staffer that it was a "Cossack" revolt.

Global fossil fuel consumption, 1950 to the present: seven histories in one

I have just attended the World Society: Planetary Natures conference at Binghamton university in the USA. The theme was the "converging crises" of climate, energy and finance. The notes of my presentation, "Global fossil fuel consumption, 1950 to the present: seven histories in one", are downloadable here. There was a wide range of speakers, including journalists and social movement activists as well as university-based researchers. Among the latter were anthropologists, ethnographers and historians, and others too. Binghamton has always been something of a centre for "world system" historians, and some (although not all) of the attendees work in that tradition. It was a very welcome opportunity to meet and exchange views with other scholars. Conference web pages here.

Scottish miner's book on pit closure fight republished on line

Polmaise: The Fight For A Pit, by John McCormack has been republished on line here. John was the National Union of Mineworkers pit delegate at Polmaise, whose miners were in the forefront of the battle against pit closures in Scotland from 1983, and throughout the national strike of 1984-85. At that time I worked in Scotland as a journalist, and "ghost wrote" the book, which was first published in 1989.

Cancellation of South Stream may signal a shift in Russian gas export policy

A paper published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies today, to which I contributed along with my colleagues Jonathan Stern and Katja Yafimava, asks whether Gazprom's cancellation of the South Stream pipeline is part of a larger shift towards a more commercially logical export policy. We look at how Gazprom will manage its investment options in the face of financial sanctions and ruble devalution.