Jane's Intelligence Review

Resource Watch

*Feeding instability - Latin America tackles a hunger crisis
Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom's declaration of a state of public calamity in September was another blow for the impoverished country. Chronic food shortages mean that...
06-Nov-2009

Power lines - Energy and politics threaten to cross wires in Southeast Asia
On 16 August, pressure in the pipeline linking Myanmar's offshore Yadana and Yetagun natural gas fields with Thailand's Kanchanaburi province suddenly dropped, cutting off fuel...
06-Oct-2009

*Fourth protocol - Competition hots up between gas pipelines
For decades, Europe has imported natural gas through three key pipeline routes running from Norway, Russia and North Africa. Now the EU supports the construction...
18-Sep-2009

*Stemming the flow - Dam construction threatens river ecosystem
Thirty years ago the Mekong River, Southeast Asia's longest, flowed freely for 4,900 km from its source in Tibet to the coast of Vietnam. The...
05-Aug-2009

*Falklands frontiers - Oil exploration at the ends of the earth
Lying just 480 km off the coast of Patagonia, the windswept British Overseas Territory (BOT) of the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands remains best known for being...
06-Jul-2009

*Current affairs - Politics and Nepal's hydroelectric potential
When Nepal's government collapsed on 4 May, its various parties and politicians were left struggling for political power. However, across the rest of the country...
27-May-2009

*Provincial concerns - Indonesia faces increasing separatist strife
A recent string of arson attacks and assaults targeting government facilities, security posts and foreign companies in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua has led...
13-May-2009

Upping the ante - Assessing the plausibility of a gas cartel
The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine at the start of 2009 has reignited concerns about energy security in the EU. Chief among these concerns...
27-Mar-2009

*Opportunity cost - Oil fuels tension in run-up to Sudan referendum
With just two years to go until South Sudan holds a referendum on full independence, tensions are high in the borderland provinces that account for...
23-Feb-2009

*A chill wind - Russia and Ukraine agree on a new gas deal
Russia began the new year by cutting gas supplies to Ukraine on 1 January, after efforts to secure a supply and transit agreement failed. Deliveries...
06-Feb-2009

Under the influence - India remains wary of China's regional policy
The December signing of a deal to transport natural gas from Myanmar's gas fields in the Bay of Bengal to China has raised a number...
09-Jan-2009

*Oil to play for - Could Cuba's oil end the embargo?
Cuba has long been assumed to be a minor oil producer, with estimated 2007 reserves of 124 million barrels. However, in October Rafael Tenreyro Pérez,...
11-Dec-2008

*Sparks of unrest: Electricity supply problems in the Central Asian republics
With the return of the winter season, insufficient energy supply in central Asia is raising the risk of heightened social unrest, particularly in Tajikistan and...
27-Oct-2008

*When in drought: escalating demands and dwindling resources
While potential triggers of resource conflict are often configured in national or regional terms, the potential for localised conflict in urban areas is also rising....
09-Oct-2008

*Fields of black gold - Cameroon takes over Bakassi peninsula
The transfer to Cameroon of the last remaining part of the Bakassi peninsula from Nigeria on 14 August may signal the end of one of...
15-Sep-2008

*Rumble in the jungle - Amazon deforestation sparks conflict in Brazil
The vastness of the Amazon rainforest is almost impossible to grasp. Comprising 40 per cent of Brazil's territory, the Brazilian Amazon covers approximately four million...
26-Aug-2008

*In deep water - Nigeria's battle to secure its oil infrastructure
Insurgent activity in the Niger Delta has entered a new phase, following an attack on Shell's deepwater Bonga oilfield by the Movement for the Emancipation ...
17-Jul-2008

*Rich seam - Philippine rebels and the mining sector
Efforts by successive Philippine governments to attract foreign investment into what should be one of the world's most dynamic mining sectors have been, at best, ...
10-Jun-2008

*In from the cold - Energy sparks tensions across Southern Cone
With demand for energy surging in the fast-growing economies of South America, the allocation of energy resources is creating political tensions, particularly between Bolivia, Brazil,...
13-May-2008

*Hungry eyes - Gazprom looks to Nigeria gas for investment
Russian firm Gazprom's domination of European gas markets is well known. The Russian giant controls the largest gas reserves in the world and exports huge...
31-Mar-2008

Oil and water - A new source of tension in central Africa
The dispute over how to exploit a major oil find in the Lake Albert border area between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)...
28-Feb-2008

*Balance of power - Brazil's oil fuels regional ascendancy
Brazil has traditionally remained aloof from regional politics, largely owing to domestic preoccupations during two decades of military rule and its aftermath. Yet the country...
08-Feb-2008

*Power plays - Creation of the West African Gas Pipeline
The long awaited West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), running from Nigeria to Ghana, Togo and Benin, came online on 23 December 2007. The project will...
24-Dec-2007

*Minority report - Prospects for security in oil-rich Khuzestan
As Iran's stand-off with the West continues, leaders in Tehran are preparing for possible military confrontation with the US and its allies. The Iranian leadership, ...
05-Dec-2007

*Parched land - Attempting to ease Australia's drought
Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent. Although parts of northern Australia enjoy high and regular rainfalls, sometimes associated with monsoon and cyclonic conditions, parts...
15-Nov-2007

*Blue gold - The waters of the Nile Basin
In 1979, Egypt's then-president Anwar Sadat claimed that "The only matter that could take Egypt into war again is water." Nearly 30 years later, with...
18-Oct-2007

Pipe dream - The feasibility of proposed Malaysian pipeline
A multibillion dollar oil and product pipeline across northern Malaysia is tentatively scheduled to start being built from 2008. The USD7 billion project, linking the...
17-Sep-2007

*Cold affront - Icy reaction to Russia's Arctic exploration
On 28 July, with an associated blaze of publicity in Russia, the Russian research ship Akademik Fyodorov sailed with a nuclear-powered ice-breaker from Murmansk on...
15-Aug-2007

*Seeds of conflict - Security risks of the quest for biofuels
When the US, the world's largest oil consumer, begins to look seriously at biofuels as a means of moving away from reliance on fossil ...
06-Jul-2007

Gas Guzzler - Gazprom tightens grip on Central Asia
The 12 May agreement to build a new gas export pipeline from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to Russia has cast doubts on the ability of ...
11-Jun-2007

In the pipeline - Russia rivals Turkey for oil projects
Competition has been heating up for oil pipelines in the Black Sea region. Three pipelines are envisaged that will be able to transport oil ...
16-May-2007

*Seizing power - Greater state control of Venezuela's oil industry
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez appeared to signal in February that his government's aim of extending state control over the lucrative oil industry could be ...
27-Mar-2007

Fuelling the economy - Can oil provide for Iraq's Sunni Arabs?
The approval of a draft hydrocarbons law on 26 February by Iraq's cabinet has focused attention on the distribution of oil wealth throughout the ...
05-Mar-2007

Resource nationalism - Russian moves provoke unfounded worries
'The Russian government thinks energy is far too important to be left to the private sector' Fears over Russian resource nationalism have resurfaced once...
07-Feb-2007

Water fight - Baglihar Dam divides India and Pakistan
The current disagreement between India and Pakistan over the Baglihar Dam stems from New Delhi's decision in 2000 to begin construction of a dam...
05-Jan-2007

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