Moscow denies rumored Kremlin plan to use oil weapon

Russian energy minister Sergei Shmatko and LUKOIL denied Friday, Aug. 29, rumors circulating in Moscow that Russian oil companies were told to stand ready to cut off supplies to Europe Monday, Sept. 1 in retaliation for any sanctions passed at an emergency European Union summit in Brussels and NATO’s actions in the Black Sea. “We are doing everything we can to keep European consumers with enough oil,” said the minister in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. LUKOIL is delivering the same amount of oil and oil products to Western Europe as before the Georgian crisis flared.Any such step by Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter, over Georgia, a key oil and gas transit zone, would further escalate inter-power tensions and cause mayhem in global energy and financial markets. Fuel prices would shoot up. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov called this talk the product of a “sick imagination.”

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5542

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