Biden, Ukraine, Fracking, Shale: the Initiative to support start-ups like Exxon with US Taxpayer dollars

In chronological order, here are some articles about Biden and the business of fracking in Ukraine. Burisma, the company his son was involved with, is very much a part of this struggle for taxpayer funding of capitalist theft of natural resources.

First, from the Burisma Holdings wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burisma_Holdings

Burisma Holdings Limited is an energy exploration and production company registered in Limassol, Cyprus and based in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is a holding company for the Burisma Group of companies. Burisma operates in the Ukrainian oil and gas market since 2002. Burisma is the largest private natural gas producer in Ukraine.

… Board of directors

Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of the Republic of Poland, was appointed to the board in January 2014.[6][12] CEO of the company is Taras Burdeinyi[1] and chairman of the board is Alan Apter.[2]

A number of non-Ukrainian directors were appointed in 2014, including Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former President of the Republic of Poland, appointed in January 2014.[12] In February 2016, Joseph Cofer Black, the Director of the American CIA’s Counterterrorist Center (CTC) (1999–2002) in the George W. Bush administration and Ambassador at Large for counter-terrorism (2002–2004) joined Burisma’s Board of Directors.[13] Also Karina Zlochevska, daughter of Mykola Zlochevskiy, is a member of the board.[2] Other members of the board are Christina Sofocleous, Riginos Charalampous, and Marina Pericleous.[14]

On 18 April 2014, Hunter Biden, the son of then-US vice president Joe Biden, was appointed to the board of Burisma Holdings.[15] He left the company in April 2019.[4] At the same time, one of the board members was Devon Archer, a former senior adviser to John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign.[16]

Note the dates of these articles in relation to the Ukraine coup and civil war slaughter:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/23/vice-president-joe-biden-promotes-...

Vice President Joe Biden Promotes U.S. as Fracking Missionary Force On Ukraine Trip
By Steve Horn
April 23, 2014

During his two-day visit this week to Kiev, Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden unfurled President Barack Obama's “U.S. Crisis Support Package for Ukraine.”

A key part of the package involves promoting the deployment of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Ukraine. Dean Neu, professor of accounting at York University in Toronto, describes this phenomenon in his book “Doing Missionary Work.” And in this case, it involves the U.S. acting as a modern-day missionary to spread the gospel of fracking to further its own interests.

The U.S. oil and gas industry has long lobbied to “weaponize” its fracking prowess to fend off Russian global gas market dominance. It's done so primarily in two ways.

One way: by transforming the U.S. State Department into a global promoter of fracking via its Unconventional Gas Technical Engagement Program (formerly the Global Shale Gas Initiative), which is a key, albeit less talked about, part of President Obama's “Climate Action Plan.”

The other way: by exporting U.S. fracked gas to the global market, namely EU countries currently heavily dependent on Russia's gas spigot.

… Gas “Support Package” Details

Within the energy security section of the aid package, the White House promises in “the coming weeks, expert teams from several U.S. government agencies will travel to the region to help Ukraine meet immediate and longer term energy needs.”

That section contains three main things the U.S. will do to ensure U.S. oil and gas companies continue to profit during this geopolitical stand-off.

1) Help with pipelines and securing access to gas at the midstream level of production.

“Today, a U.S. interagency expert team arrived in Kyiv to help Ukraine secure reverse flows of natural gas from its European neighbors,” the White House fact sheet explains. “Reverse flows of natural gas will provide Ukraine with additional immediate sources of energy.”

2) Technical assistance to help boost conventional gas production in Ukraine. That is, gas obtained not from fracking and horizontal drilling, but via traditional vertical drilling.

As the White House explains, “U.S. technical experts will join with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and others in May to help Ukraine develop a public-private investment initiative to increase conventional gas production from existing fields to boost domestic energy supply.”

3) Shale gas missionary work.

“A technical team will also engage the government on measures that will help the Ukrainian government ensure swift and environmentally sustainable implementation of contracts signed in 2013 for shale gas development,” says the White House.

ExxonMobil Teaching Russia Fracking

Ironically, as the U.S. government teams up with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to teach Ukraine fracking in order to wean the country off of Russian gas, U.S.-based “private empire” ExxonMobil is doing the same work in Russia to help the country tap into its shale oil and gas bounty.

Among its myriad partnerships with the Russian oil and gas industry, ExxonMobil has signed a joint venture in December 2013 with state-owned company Rosneft to help it tap the massive Bazhenov Shale basin.

… Climate Change Taboo

Traditionally, missionaries do charity work in service to humanity. But the enormous climate impact of fracking — given the climate change math — calls those doing the Lord's work in the shale gas sphere into question.

So in the case of the U.S. government and Ukraine, the concept of missionary work has been flipped on its head.

That is, the most profitable companies on the face of the planet — both in the U.S. and in Russia — are set to profit at the expense of everyone else, including the stability of earth's climate system.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/opinion/russia-s-silent-shale-ga...

Russia’s silent shale gas victory in Ukraine
02-09-2015

The vast shale gas reserves in the separatist-held Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk regions are an important element not to be overlooked when analysing the Ukraine crisis, writes Szilvia Batkov.

… Before the civil war, Ukraine had agreements with the energy giants to explore and tap its shale gas fields in hope to reduce the country’s heavy dependency on Russian gas imports. In the Donetsk Region Shell had a 50-year profit sharing deal with the government of Ukraine to explore and drill for natural gas in shale rock formations.

US energy giant Chevron also signed a similar deal for $10 billion, but it was focusing on developing shale gas reserves in the West of Ukraine. However, one year into the Russia-backed conflict, both decided to freeze or postpone their shale-exploring activities in Ukraine. Probably also driven by the low gas prices, the profit-oriented energy giants simply shied away from their shale projects in the conflict-ridden country, citing the lack of security for their investments and worsening extraction prospects as their main reasons.

It is hard to miss the massive American interest in Europe’s desire to cut dependency of Russia and simultaneously Ukraine’s promising shale gas prospects. Besides the obvious profit-oriented business interests of American companies in tapping the shale gas of Ukraine, as usually, politics and strategic foreign political interests are also at play in the war for Ukraine’s new gas potential.

The EU and the US are currently negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership (TTIP), which, if agreed, could be very advantageous for the multinational fracking lobby. When President Obama attended an EU-US summit in Brussels in 2014 to discuss the Ukraine crisis, he said the new trans-Atlantic trade agreement would make it easier for his administration to approve American LNG exports to the EU.

However, as long as TTIP is not signed and with significant problems in Poland, Ukraine seems to be the only way for the US shale gas lobby to set its feet in CEE. Vice President Joe Biden announced that the United States would bring in technical experts to speed up Ukraine’s shale gas development.

In fact, the Biden family was so interested in Ukraine, that his son Hunter was appointed to the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, Burisma Holdings. This has put Ukraine’s shale gas question into a new perspective – at least from the American viewpoint.

Burisma holds licenses covering the Dnieper-Donets basin in the eastern Ukraine and Biden Jr. is not the only American with political ties to have recently joined the company’s board. Devon Archer, a former senior advisor to current Secretary of State John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and a college roommate of Kerry’s stepson, signed up with Burisma in April 2014.

... If the explorations indeed confirm Ukraine’s estimated shale reserves, these would become a significant danger to Russia’s monopoly over the multi-billion euros gas supplies to Europe. By continuing its officially denied support of the separatists in keeping Ukraine’s shale gas untapped, Moscow has also averted another crisis; American shale gas interests setting foot right at its doorsteps at the Ukrainian border and the European gas markets.

In Russia’s silent shale gas victory in Ukraine, the Russian-backed rebels fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions ensured that at least for the near future, Ukraine’s shale gas potential will not be able to challenge Gazprom’s gas monopoly in the region.

https://theintercept.com/2016/05/23/hillary-clinton-fracking/

Hillary Clinton’s Energy Initiative Pressed Countries to Embrace Fracking, New Emails Reveal
Lee Fang, Steve Horn
The Intercept
May 23 2016

… emails obtained by The Intercept show that State Department officials worked closely with private sector oil and gas companies, pressed other agencies within the Obama administration to commit federal government resources including technical assistance for locating shale reserves, and distributed agreements with partner nations pledging to help secure investments for new fracking projects… The campaign included plans to spread the drilling technique to China, South Africa, Romania, Morocco, Bulgaria, Chile, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Indonesia, and Ukraine… A number of energy companies that worked closely with the State Department now employ lobbyists that are fundraising furiously for Clinton’s campaign. ExxonMobil’s top lobbyist, as well as lobbyists for liquefied natural gas terminals designed to connect the U.S. to the global gas market, are among the most prolific fundraisers.

… The Global Shale Gas Initiative, Clinton’s program for promoting fracking, was announced on April 7, 2010, by David Goldwyn, the State Department’s special envoy for energy affairs, at the United States Energy Association (USEA), whose members include Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Shell.

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snoopydawg's picture

Russia was giving them deals on what they paid for it and now thousands of Ukrainians are not able to afford the higher prices. Especially since the IMF has installed brutal austerity policies on them and especially the elderly. And it's not only the people in Ukraine. Lots of people in Europe are paying higher prices because their dear leaders are buying gas from us instead of getting it from Russia at a lower price. Smart.

1- During his two-day visit this week to Kiev, Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden unfurled President Barack Obama's “U.S. Crisis Support Package for Ukraine.”

First we created the crisis by our violent coup and then we throw money at it that will benefit the oil and gas companies.

2- transforming the U.S. State Department into a global promoter of fracking.

This was a continuation of the state department promoting fracking during Hillary's tenure as SOS. Nice! This is how our money is being spent whilst thousands of Americans are homeless or dying from lack of health care.

3- Vice President Joe Biden announced that the United States would bring in technical experts to speed up Ukraine’s shale gas development. In fact, the Biden family was so interested in Ukraine, that his son Hunter was appointed to the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, Burisma Holdings. This has put Ukraine’s shale gas question into a new perspective – at least from the American viewpoint.

Nope. No conflict of interest there.

So once again it's regime change so that corporations can steal their resources. But this is never what we are told is the reasons for it. Here's an interesting article that shows how propaganda is used for our military interventions.

The Logic of US Foreign Policy

How can US foreign policy be explained in a systematic and rational way? The following chart reveals the longstanding imperial logic behind U.S. diplomatic and military interventions around the globe.

1- Defending democracy and human rights: This classical justification is not very convincing, since democratic governments have been overthrown (A, M, N), autocrats have been supported human rights and international law have been violated or violations tolerated by the US.

2- Combating terrorism: Paramilitary groups – including Islamist organizations – have been used for decades to eliminate opposing regimes.

3- Specific threats or aggressions against the US: Most of these scenarios turned out to be incorrect (or made up) in retrospect (No. 13; e.g. Tonkin, incubator and WMD claims).

4- Raw materials (especially oil and gas): Even enemy states generally want to sell their raw materials to the West, but are prevented from doing so by means of sanctions or war. This is because from an imperial point of view, their independence and influence is seen as a threat.

6- Capitalism: In 1917 Lenin described “imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism,” since capitalist states would have to conquer markets for their overproduction. However, even enemy states want to trade with the West, but are prevented from doing so by sanctions or war. Moreover, pre-capitalist states like Rome and Spain and even anti-capitalist states like the Soviet Union had already waged imperial wars.

8- Arms industry: In 1961 US President Eisenhower warned of the increasing influence of the “military-industrial complex”. The latter is certainly one of the main profiteers of wars, but this applies as well to countries such as Russia, China, Sweden and Switzerland. Moreover, US wars are not arbitrary, but follow a certain logic; after all, even the Roman Empire did not conduct its wars merely to produce as many weapons as possible.

9- The “Israel Lobby”: This aspect was emphasized in the book of the same name by Professors Walt and Mearsheimer. The Israeli government and pro-Israeli organizations such as AIPAC lobbied for the 2003 Iraq War and a war against Iran. As a hegemonic power, however, the US must intervene from East Asia to Central Africa and South America, and even the wars in the Middle East follow a superordinate logic. (More: The “Israel Lobby”: Facts and Myths)

10- Neoconservatives: Another hypothesis proposes that US wars are driven by the so-called neo­neo­con­ser­vatives. /a>­. This explanation is refuted, for instance, by the numerous wars initiated or continued by the Clinton and Obama administrations (Yugoslavia, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, etc.)

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Great work, Linda.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg !

It even works on my clunky computer. Click to Enlarge! Very interesting!

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snoopydawg's picture

when it first came out.

Commenters at Daily Kos affirm pugnaciously that there’s nothing to see here:

So the Vice President’s son who has been a high powered lawyer for years who has passed the Bar in DC, CT and the Supreme Court with a speciality in international law and relations shouldn’t sit on company boards? Is this what you are trying to say?

lol..I'm sure that people won't be surprised by who was defending them.

This came from this article written about the ByeDones back then too.

R. Hunter Biden Should Declare Who Really Owns His New Ukrainian Employer, Burisma Holdings

So it’s not fishy at all? No one’s saying that.

Do say: “Somebody needs to get involved in Ukraine’s corporate governance, and it might as well be a clutch of rich, well-connected American dudes with weird first names.”

Don’t say: “Thanks, Dad.”

This article is worth a read because it's funny.

lol... speaking of ToP:

I watched Rachel Maddow interview Ambassador McFaul this evening, and a number of things about this whole unholy mess became clear. Let me see if I can lay it out:

In 2014, Russia invades the Crimea. In response, Obama and the EU impose sanctions and kick Russia out of the G8 (not G7).

According to Rachel Russia just decided to invade the Crimea and then Obama put sanctions on them in response. No mention of Obama's violent coup. Of course not.

Russia’s economy is not very robust, and the sanctions really bite. In particular, they hurt Putin and some of the people whose support he needs to stay in power.
...
All that is in addition to the benefits Trump personally gets out of it:

He can “prove” he won the election without Russia’s help. (That he is trying to do this by showing someone else helped him instead just show you don’t understand Trumplogic™.)

He gets dirt on his most likely opponent.

Most important, he satisfies the puppet master, who will now help get him another term (and also not put polonium in his diet coke).
...
Rachel at her best. Making up the dots to connect Connecting the dots.

And this folks is...you fill in the blanks.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

at CIA CounterTerrorism Center who was the guy who carried out George Tenet's orders, allowing the Flight 77 hijackers into the US. Read what Ray McGovern had to say about that, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/08/17/did-tenet-hide-key-info-911

After resigning from the Agency after 9/11, Black was appointed to the Board of Erik Prince's Blackwater (aka, Academi, Xe, Constellis-Apollo Holdings)(also, related, The Prince Group, Total Intelligence Solutions, Terrorism Research Center, OODA Group LLC, and about 30 shell corporations), along with another former ranking CTC official and the Agency's ex-Deputy Director, making Blackwater, et al., a major privatized intelligence operator, with CIA contracts worth $600 million, and one of three largest Department of State contractors under Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Now we learn that Black joined Hunter Biden on the Board of Burisma Holdings. As Vice President, Old Joe was one of the most active voices in the Obama Administration (along with Hillary) pushing regime change in Kiev. Stars and Stripes reported in 2014 rumors in Germany (which the paper didn't refute) that 400 American mercenaries identified as working with Xe were involved in fighting in breakaway regions of Ukraine. See, https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/rumors-of-american-mercenaries-in-uk...

Earlier in his career, Cofer Black had been the CIA Station Chief in Sudan while Osama Bin Laden along with KSM and WTC '93 veteran (and CIA asset) Ali Mohamed built al-Qaeda as a CIA ally in Kosovo during the late 1990s. Before he was reassigned back to Langley, Black had the chance to kill or capture UBL, but according to his own account declined to do so. Indeed, Black is still a key player, as is Prince, who figured large in an effort to lure the incoming Trump regime into a lucrative Qatar and UAE financed deal to buy off Russia in efforts to regime change Iran.

The Old Spooks Club is very much a bipartisan establishment.

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@leveymg !!!!

Now we learn that Black was joined on the Board by Hunter Biden. Stars and Stripes reported in 2014 rumors in Germany (which it didn't refute) that 400 American mercenaries identified as working with Xi were involved in fighting in breakaway regions of Ukraine.

If the American people could see the photographs of children crushed by tanks in the Ukraine slaughter, they would never stop throwing up.

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@Linda Wood CIA serial black operations that continue to push the world toward the brink of WWIII. Why? Because the same guys continue to get away with this. It's satisfying (and highly enriching) work to them.

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"Kill the planet faster". (Also Obama's plan).

I really hope this comes up in the next "debate". Too bad that, due to the show being done with all 12 candidates on stage at the same time, all responses will be limited to 3 seconds.

BTW, THIS article is talking about the most important part of the Ukraine kerfluffle. Thanks, Linda.

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@tle

I agree:

THIS article is talking about the most important part of the Ukraine kerfluffle.

The problem with Putin is that he's not Yeltsin. Putin is pro-labor, to the extent that he is. He is surrounded by and continues to cultivate oligarchs, but he requires them to pay taxes and to pay the workforce, whereas Yeltsin allowed a total abuse of the Russian workforce and the environment, a complete catastrophe. Under Putin, even Exxon and Halliburton have learned to live with reality.

http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/company/worldwide-operations/location...

ExxonMobil has had a continuous business presence in Russia for more than 20 years across upstream, downstream and chemical operations. Our upstream offices are located in Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and our downstream offices are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok. We have a strong upstream presence in Russia as operator of the Sakhalin-1 project.

Learn more about our activities in Russia

http://www.halliburton.com/en-US/locations/eurasia/halliburton-eurasia.p...

Halliburton Eurasia comprises Russia, Ukraine, Caspian West and Caspian East. This large area presents challenges that are quite diverse, including shallow water, environmentally sensitive North Caspian with deep, high pressure, H2S/CO2 oil wells; mature oil fields in Kazakhstan and Siberia; high flowrate gas fields in Northern Siberia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; and extreme weather conditions in the large part of the Eurasia region. While this region represents a tremendous variety of technical, logistical, and supply chain challenges, Halliburton's organization in this region, coupled with a strong national workforce, is well established to provide creative and innovative solutions. The potential of the resources and the diversity of the plays demand a great variety of new technologies. Halliburton Eurasia offers a well services portfolio designed to create sustainable value by delivering outstanding products, services and utilizing our Integrated Workflows.

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Wally's picture

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Whenever anyone in government or the media tells the public that there "IS NO THERE, THERE", that is when you begin digging for the truth!

Joe Biden and his son, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are all liars Period.

It IS all about oil!. Has been for decades.

The oil industry and our CIA are at the root of the world's miseries and they are aided and abetted by every single President and administration that has stepped into the office since oil became the cornerstone of our lives.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

@Fishtroller 02

The oil industry and our CIA are at the root of the world's miseries and they are aided and abetted by every single President and administration that has stepped into the office since oil became the cornerstone of our lives.

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Wally's picture

@Linda Wood

Seems it's okay for Dems to cavort with Russian oligarchs when raping and pillaging Ukraine via fracking:

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and most people have no idea. George Carlin was SO right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtgfzzwoyK4

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin