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How Russia Is About to Dramatically Change the World January 5, 2010 | From theTrumpet.com In a remote corner of the world, a port bristles with cranes, smokestacks, mammoth shipsand trouble for Europe. ROBERT MORLEY Over the next few days, Russia will change the world. It has completed a new oil pipeline and port complex that sets Russia up to become a more powerful oil exporter than Saudi Arabia. The ramifications for Europe and Asia are profound: The shape of the global economyand the global balance of powerwill be altered forever. December 28 was a big day of ceremony in Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pushed a button that transformed global oil dynamicsespecially for Asia and Europe. The button released thousands of barrels of Siberian crude into a waiting Russian supertanker and heralded the opening of Russia¹s first modern Pacific-based oil export facilities. The multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art oil terminal was a ³great New Year present for Russia,² Putin said during the inauguration. The strategic terminal, located in the city of Kozmino on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is one of the ³biggest projects in contemporary Russia² he said, not only in ³modern Russia, but the former Soviet Union too.² Putin has every right to be enthusiastic about his new port. Kozmino will unlock a two-way gate through which Russia¹s vast Siberian oilfields will gush into Asia¹s energy-hungry economiesand Chinese, Korean and Japanese currency will flow into Russia. If just the seven ships currently waiting to berth are all filled during January, the port of Kozmino will instantly become Russia¹s third-most important oil outlet. According to Reuters, the first oil transport loads on January 15. In a symbolic move highlighting Russia¹s warming relationship with China, Hong Kong will receive the first shipment. After that, Kozmino¹s importance will exponentially grow over the next year. Currently, all Siberian oil shipments into Kozmino are delivered by trainbut that will soon change. Phase one of the East Siberian-Pacific Ocean Pipeline (espo) was also completed during December. Phase two will soon connect the Siberian fields directly to the new port. When phase two is finished in 2012, total exports could jump from the current rate of 250,000 barrels per day to over 1 million. Kozmino will transform into one of the largest oil centers in the worldcapable of handling 16 percent of total Russian oil exports. It will be one of the most strategic geopolitical assets in Russia¹s arsenal. Russia pumped more than 10 million barrels of oil per day during November. With Saudi Arabian production falling, Russia is now the world¹s largest oil exporter. Toss in Russia¹s natural gas exports, and Russia is the biggest energy superpower in the world, by far. That does not even count Russia¹s massive uranium resources and nuclear expertise. But here is why the new port in Kozmino could radically affect the future of both Asia and Europe. For over a century, Russia¹s entire energy infrastructure has focused mainly on supplying Europe. That has now changed forever! The first and now-complete phase of the espo pipeline, which connects Russia¹s Siberian oil fields to China, is already destabilizing global oil dynamics and shifting them in Russia¹s direction. ³espo is what political strategists might call a game-changer,¹² writes the Telegraph. ³It means that Russia will be able to send its oil either east or westso it can drive a harder bargain when selling crude to Europe² (emphasis mine throughout). Previously, when Russia has had pricing disputes with Europe, Moscow had to play the embargo card with an obvious bluff. It had no other alternative outlet for its oil. Without the Europeans, its oil would sit in Samotlor and Tyanskoye, costing money instead of making it. But now Moscow can turn off the tap to Europe and still pump in the profits by opening the pipe wide to its energy-hungry Asian partners. But Russia¹s stranglehold on Europe is about to get even tightermuch tighter. By 2012, the espo pipeline will be twinned with a pipeline for natural gas exports so Russian gas supplies can also flow east instead of west if necessary. This development is truly scary to Europeans. Moscow has already demonstrated that it isn¹t afraid to turn off Europe¹s energy supplies when it feels it needs to. In the middle of winter 2006, Russia shut off gas supplies to Germany, and several other countries, in order to punish Ukraine. Since then, it has repeatedly used the same method to strong-arm its former Eastern European satellites back into accepting Russian dominance. The message is clear: Russian oil and gas supplies are a weapon to be usedor not usedto freeze opponents into submission. Europe, in a tenuous relationship with Russia to begin with, desperately needs to secure another source of energy. Only one other region in the world can supply the energy to warm and lubricate modern Europe¹s homes and industries: the Middle East. Countries like Germany, which imports 90 percent of its oil, are now much more dependent on one of the most volatile regions of the world for power supplies. It is inevitable that Berlin will seek to expand its ties with oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council members: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and especially Saudi Arabia, the world¹s second-largest petroleum producer. Europe has no choice but to become much more intimately involved with the affairs of the Middle Easta region from which 40 percent of its oil is currently derived. It is therefore no surprise that Germany, the most dominant nation in Europe, has made sure it has troops on the ground surrounding this Middle Eastern ³golden triangle² of energy production (Gulf Cooperation Council members plus Iran and Iraq). On the seas, the European Union¹s naval presence is growing too. The European anti-piracy task force operates in both the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Aden. Forty percent of the world¹s ocean-borne oil is shipped through the Gulf of Oman. Europe is critically dependent on imported oil. And Germany knows it must have a strong presence in the world¹s most oil-rich region if it is to secure its flow and the country¹s future. The Bible predicts that a major military clash will soon occur in the Middle Eastspecifically between a European power, led by Germany, and radical Islam, led by Iran. Daniel 11:40-45 indicate that Iran will continue to push at this European power until it finally responds in ³whirlwind,² blitzkrieg-type fashion. As we have explained for almost 20 yearsand has been borne out repeatedly in real-world eventsthe ³king of the south² spoken of in these verses is radical Islam under the leadership of Iran. And as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has written, a big part of Iran¹s push against Europe will involve oil. The Middle East is a powder keg that could explode at any time. Syria dominates Lebanon and is stirring up trouble there. Iran is about to create a nuclear weapon and has said it wants to wipe Israel off the map. It is test firing missiles that can strike European capitals. Israel knows that the window to prevent Iran from getting the bomb is closing. Hamas is preparing to violently take East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. Israel is about to release 1,000 terrorists back onto the streets in return for one captured Israeli soldier. And to top it off, the world is in the midst of its worst depression since the 1930s. Oil prices remain above $70 per barrel, and the International Energy Agency has indicated that world oil production will now peak in 202010 years sooner than prior estimates. Some analysts think the world has already reached peak oil production. In this climate of global instability, Russia¹s recent moves on the world¹s oil stage will be amplified in dramatic fashion. By unlocking Siberia¹s energy reserves, Russia is simultaneously binding Asia together and lighting a fire under Europe. Watch for the development of an Asian alliance between Russia, China and Japan. And watch for Europe¹s next moves toward the Middle East.
