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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Algeria: Moving closer toward a gas cartelRecent developments show that the Russian idea of creating a 'gas OPEC', in which Algeria will play a prominent role, is far from being neglected in Algiers. On the contrary, there is growing evidence that Algerian government may want to have this option wide open. Thus, it will put some additional value to its already large gas reserves. And it will make the Europeans pay for its economic development, a kind of financial compensation for its colonial past. Some technical problems may delay the creation of this gas cartel. But when they are eliminated, Algeria may be ready to take a fateful decision, a decision that will determine its foreign relations' course for generations. Algeria is a large, but not densely populated country in Northern Africa. In the past, it was part of some multinational empires, Roman, Arab Caliphate, Ottoman, and at the end, of the French colonial empire until after the end of the World War II. It was the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962) that acted as a powerful earthquake in France, causing the political system to move from parliamentary to presidential regime. In France, the memory of the time when Algeria was considered not as a colony, but as a group of departments, is still alive. This is a powerful factor that still creates many misunderstandings between Algiers and Paris. France is ready to acknowledge the genocide of the Turks against the Armenians during the World War I, but not to give the same name for what happened in Algeria more recently. We'll see later how these misunderstandings may influence future relations between Algeria and France, and the EU in general. Two recent developments zoom our attention on this Arab country: the higher energy prices and the idea to create gas cartel, sort of a 'gas OPEC'. Let's begin with the latter. The EU is heavily dependent on imported gas. With the recent EU enlargements, this dependency becomes even bigger, because the new members have no significant gas production. On the other hand, countries exporting gas, such as Russia, Algeria, and Norway, surround EU. Europe is dependent on their energy, but these gas exporters have little influence over European decision-making. Expensive oil since 1973 made rich European countries more dependent on alternative energy sources, but Moscow still takes little more than just money against selling its natural resources. The idea to create a gas cartel comes originally from Iran, a country that has huge gas reserves, but doesn't export but very small quantities of them. For Iran, as well as for Saudi Arabia, another advocate for the new cartel, making gas more expensive will make automatically the oil even more expensive. Natural gas wouldn't be taken as cheaper and more ecologically friendly alternative any more. Gas-importing countries then, it's assumed, given the bad experience after the oil chocks in 1973 and 1979, will rush to make individual deals with exporters, making importers vulnerable for political and other sorts of blackmailing. The cartel will provide extra rents and extra power to its members by the simple fact of its existence, even if they aren't capable of coordinating any policy on quotas or prices. All right, let's now get back to the question how current higher oil prices may influence the Algerian decision on whether or not to join this cartel. Algeria is not only a big gas, but also a big oil producer and exporter. High oil prices make it more independent financially from Europe. Instead of using the extra dollars for new economic development, Algerian government is first repaying its debts. This doesn't make much sense in terms of money, but it does make sense in terms of financial independence. With current rates of debt reimbursement, Algeria will clear completely its external debt by the end of this year at the latest. If it wants to join a gas cartel, this is a good first step in the right direction. In hindsight, it seems that the EU made a very bad decision in eliminating any possibility of enlargement that will embrace northern Africa. This decision made sense in terms of geography and religion, but paid little attention to possible new realities like the high dependency on imported energy. With such painful colonial past, legacies of semi-socialist economy, and being abandoned by France and Europe on its own fate, it will be surprising if Algeria decides after all to keep friendly relations with Europe and refuse the generous offer coming from Moscow and Tehran. Looking at Algeria as a member of this new gas cartel may explain why it spends billions on buying so many conventional weapons from Russia.
Algeria profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Algeria.
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