Balts hope Georgia conflict boosts energy case
TALLINN (Reuters) - Ulo Kikas, harbor captain at the port of Muuga, stands at the top of the multi-storey harbor building near Estonia's capital and points down to a network of vacant railway tracks for oil product wagons.
"That used to be full of trains," he said. In the distance is an empty quay. "That is the coal terminal. There used to be piles of coal there, you could see them from here. Now there is nothing."
The reason, Estonian officials say, is that Russia diverted shipments of oil products and coal from Tallinn port after a diplomatic row last year in a display of its willingness to use energy as a political weapon.
The port is one focus of concerns about energy security in the Baltic states which intensified after Russia's incursion into Georgia in August.
Russia denies using energy supplies to pressurize recently independent neighbors, and global financial crises have drowned out the talk of a new Cold War that surfaced then.
But the United States has since made a modest contribution to the self-proclaimed "energy islands" of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, agreeing in September to give Lithuania $800,000 for a feasibility study on a liquefied natural gas terminal.
"We have seen Russia using energy as a political weapon," U.S. Ambassador to Latvia Charles Larson said in a recent interview with the Latvian daily Diena. "We do not accept that as we believe it can threaten security of countries."
Though squabbling among themselves on how to diversify their energy supplies, the Baltic states hope Russia's conflict with Georgia will win them greater support from the European Union and force the bloc to re-think its own energy priorities.
"Probably more people are ready to listen (to the Balts)," said Arkady Moshes, Russian program director at the Finnish Institute for International Relations. "But this does not mean (other EU members) are ready to accept a blueprint for action."
VULNERABLE ECONOMIES
Gas is the biggest worry for the three Baltic nations as Russia is their sole supplier.
Another concern is that the Baltic power grids are linked mostly to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine -- all six were Soviet republics -- though the region got its first energy link to the west since the collapse of the Soviet Union when a new cable joined Estonia to Finland in 2006.
The Baltic economies are also vulnerable through transit trade: their ports, railways and roads are used to ship goods between Russia and the west.
A good earner for the Baltics, these channels are where the politics of energy has been most keenly felt.
Russian officials have said they plan gradually to re-route their energy exports to domestic from foreign ports, but have speeded up the process. Continued...
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