Food Prices in Canada

Rising food prices in North spark protest

People living in Canada’s far north are increasingly frustrated over the high cost of food.

CBC News

28 August, 2012

Protests were held in Nunavut Saturday to highlight rising prices.

Sheila Katsak in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, said she spends about $60 a day to feed her family of five. Katsak said that doesn’t allow for any treats.

“It would be nice if I could buy a pizza at the end of the week. But I can't. It's not affordable,” she said.

The federal government subsidizes retailers’ expenses to ship food by air.

The North West Company has 145 stores in the north. Spokesperson Michael McMullen said there are other expenses like electricity to consider.

“These refrigeration units behind us, it's 11 times more expensive to run them on a daily basis minimum,” McMullen said.

More than 3,000 kilometres to the west, in northern Yukon, the complaints are the same.

People in the remote community of Old Crow, Yukon, say it’s hard to afford a nutritious diet under the federal government’s food-subsidy program.

Community resident Robert Bruce said Ottawa does not care about the North and won't address the high cost of healthy living.

The local representative on a panel that advises the government on the subsidy program has heard the complaints.

Kathie Nukon said even she avoids using it. Instead, when she can she buys groceries during trips to southern Yukon.

“I haven't had that experience. I totally avoid it myself. When I go to Whitehorse I just shop at the store myself and just bring it as baggage,” Nukon said.

She estimates buying food at the store in Old Crow costs $50 per meal for her and her grandchild.

Nukon wants the board that oversees the program to come north.

“I think the only solution right now is to invite the board here and have a public meeting and get them to talk to everyone,” she said.

Earthquake swarm in California

Southern California town declares emergency over quake swarm

The southern California town of Brawley has taken the unusual step of declaring a state of emergency after a swarm of earthquakes rattled nearly 20 mobile homes off their blocks and forced a slaughterhouse to close, the mayor said on Wednesday.

 

Reuters,

30 August, 2012

It is uncommon for quake-hardy California cities to declare emergencies due to tremors, but Brawley mayor George Nava said the earthquake swarm is a unique case because it has lasted for days and caused millions of dollars in damage.

The cluster of relatively small quakes, which are caused by water and other fluids moving around in the Earth's crust, began on Saturday evening and climaxed the next day with a 5.5 temblor, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The tremors were continuing on Wednesday and geologists say there have been hundreds in total.

Nava said leaders in Brawley, a city of 25,000 residents south of the state's inland Salton Sea and 170 miles (275 km) southeast of Los Angeles, declared a local emergency late on Tuesday. Officials with surrounding Imperial County made a similar declaration on Wednesday.

Nineteen mobile homes were knocked off their blocks and their residents forced out, Nava said. The auditorium at Brawley Union High School has been damaged and closed off, and the National Beef slaughter plant in Brawley has been temporarily shut down due to damage, he said.

Local businesses have suffered millions of dollars in losses from closures and from customers staying away, Nava said. But he could not give an exact account of quake-related losses.

The Red Cross and local government agencies will offer services to residents on Friday and Saturday at a local center. The emergency declaration allows Brawley to receive more assistance from Imperial County, Nava said.

At one point, about 10,000 residents in the city were without power, and the quakes have also caused water line disruptions, Nava said.

"When you don't have an AC or running water, it's just not a good thing in this weather," he said.

Jeanne Hardebeck, research seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said earlier this week that the cluster of quakes is not a sign that a larger temblor is imminent

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Yorba Linda earthquake a likely aftershock from earlier cluster

The 4.1 earthquake that jolted Yorba Linda on Wednesday afternoon appears to be an aftershock of the cluster of quakes that hit the region earlier this month, seismologists said

LA Times,

29 August, 2012

The jolted area included southeastern Los Angeles County, Orange County and the Inland Empire. The quake occurred in about the same location of an earthquake doublet, two 4.5 quakes that occurred on Aug. 7 at 11:23 p.m. and Aug. 8 at 9:33 a.m. The area was also hit by a 4.0 quake on June 14.

Wednesday's quake, which hit at 1:31 p.m., was located near the center point of the magnitude-5.5 Chino Hills earthquake that reverberated through the Los Angeles Basin in the summer of 2008, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones told The Times.

Wednesday's quake appeared to be located in the "Yorba Linda trend," a seismic area identified by Caltech geophysicist Egill Hauksson in 1990, that might be a buried fault.

Many who felt the quake said it was relatively mild.

At Vinjon's Kennel in Yorba Linda, the quake hit just as Carisa Feeney, 22, was giving a bath to a year-and-a-half-old boxer mix. When the quake delivered its single strong jolt, the dog leaped up in the tub –- and both quickly ran outside.

"I'm pretty much covered in water," Feeney said.

Nancy Ferguson, who owns SGO Designer Glass in Old Town Yorba Linda, said, "We had a big jolt, just for a few seconds, then everything just kind of swayed."

Ferguson, who has hundreds of pieces of glass on display in her store, said she holds her breath every time there's an earthquake. "But nothing fell over today, so we're feeling pretty lucky," she said.

It is unlikely that the earthquake swarm that has hit Imperial County with hundreds of quakes since the weekend is related to Wednesday's quake in Yorba Linda, Jones said.

A Lifeboat in Greece

Eco-commune flourishes as Greek economy withers

Web designer Apostolos Sianos and three friends startled Greek villagers when they quit well-paid jobs in Athens to set up a self-sufficient commune that lives in yurts and grows its own vegetables.

News Daily,

30 August, 2012

In California, or Scandinavia, such a move might have gone unnoticed. But in deeply conservative rural Greece - where green thinking is strictly the domain of urbanites - the project made suspicious locals uneasy, or was laughed off as ridiculous.

But now, two years and a brutal economic crisis later, Sianos and his friends are the ones laughing.

With Greece's economy in freefall, nearly one in four out of work and the desperate jobless turning to the land to survive, the group's focus on growing their own produce and cutting down their reliance on money and a bankrupt state suddenly make practical sense to many Greeks - and some are now turning to the vegan commune for advice.

For article GO HERE

South Africa - blame the victim

A great response! Blame the victims. The South Africans have used an old law from the Apartheid era.

South African miners charged with murder of 34 colleagues killed by police

South African workers arrested after a shooting at a platinum mine have been charged with killing 34 of their colleagues, despite confirmation that police committed the murders. The officers, who did not deny using guns, face no charges.

RT,

30 August, 2012

The Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, in the country's North West province, made headlines on August 16, when protesters, who demanded their wages be raised to over $1,000 a month, clashed with police. The crackdown claimed the lives of 36 people – miners and two policemen, and left 78 injured.

All of the 270 arrested miners, including the six hospitalized, were previously said to be charged with attempted murder or public violence. But state prosecutor Nigel Carpenter increased the charges against them. 

 

The miners are to be tried under the "common purpose" doctrine, which implies that all participants in a criminal activity can be charged for its consequences. 

 

"This is under common law, where people are charged with common purpose in a situation where there are suspects with guns or any weapons and they confront or attack the police and a shooting takes place, and there are fatalities," Frank Lesenyego, spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority, said. 

 

The lawyers representing the Marikana strikers are expected to challenge the charges. A prior application for bail was rejected, and the hearing was delayed till September 6. Until then, the miners will remain in custody in three area police stations.

At the same time, the policemen involved in the deadly clashes at the Marikana mine will undergo a Commission of Inquiry investigation separately. 

 

That is despite police commissioner Riah Phiyega's confirmation a few days after the tragedy that the 34 people were killed by police. However, police officers insist that they opened fire to defend themselves against a wave of strikers armed with machetes, who allegedly charged barricades. Prior to gunshots, the police used tear gas and water cannons.

However, leaked findings of victims' autopsies were published by the South African Star newspaper, and showed that the miners were shot in the back while running away.

The post-mortem results suggested that the strikers posed no danger to law enforcement at the time of the shooting.

An official spokesman refused to confirm or deny the accusations on what’s already being dubbed the Marikana Massacre – the most violent episode in South Africa’s history since the 1994 end of apartheid.

TB - the new pandemic

TB continued: Drug-resistant strain of deadly disease alarms doctors worldwide

The world is in the middle of a tuberculosis pandemic, scientists say. What was once a disease of undeveloped nations has raced across continents, with thousands of cases in Asia and Europe. The disease may infect up to two million people by 2015.

RT,

30 August, 2012

An extensive international study published by the Lancet medical journal shows that the illness, once thought to be the stuff of books by the likes of Charles Dickens, is making a quiet comeback. Cases of tuberculosis in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America are on the rise, and many of them are of a strain resistant to vaccination.

The study examines two types of tuberculosis: Multi drug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR), both of which are far more widespread than previously believed, experts claim.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that destroys patients’ lung tissue. The disease is then spread through the air through coughing and sneezing. Anyone with active TB may infect an additional 10 to 15 people a year, experts say.

MDR tuberculosis is resistant to at least two first-line drugs – Isoniazid and Rifampicin – used as primary treatment in confirmed cases of the disease. XDR is resistant not only to these two, but also to an antibiotic used as second-line drug.

"Most international recommendations for TB control have been developed for MDR-TB prevalence of up to around five percent. Yet now we face prevalence up to ten times higher in some places, where almost half of the patients … are transmitting MDR strains," Sven Hoffner of the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control wrote in a commentary on the study.

Afghan women look on as a child lies on a bed in a tuberculosis section of the main hospital in Herat (AFP Photo / Aref Karimi)

Presently, most seem to worry about diseases of the exotic type: Bird or swine flu, or West Nile virus generally tend to dominate headlines in the West. But scientists are warning that the world is in the midst of a tuberculosis pandemic.

In 2010, 8.8 million people were infected with TB, with 1.4 million dying from the disease.Treating TB is an arduous process. Patients often require a multitude of drugs, with treatment lasting for up to six months. Many patients fail to complete the process correctly – which researchers believe is a factor in the increase of cases of drug-resistant forms of TB.

Drug-resistant TB is not only more difficult to treat, but also more expensive. Chief Scientific Officer Tom Evans of Aeras, a non-profit group working on development of new vaccines, told Reuters that “without a robust pipeline of new drugs to stay one step ahead, it will be nearly impossible to treat our way out of this epidemic.” 

But the treatment, Evans said, is “limited, expensive, and toxic.”

Photomicrograph of a sputum sample containing Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Courtesy: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library

In the US, a case of MDR tuberculosis can cost up to $250,000 per patient. In less developed countries, such costs will likely be unmanageable for patients and healthcare systems.

According to the study, TB strains resistant to any second-line drugs were found in nearly 44 percent of patients: From 33 percent of cases in Thailand to 62 percent of cases in Latvia.

XDR tuberculosis was found in 6.7 per cent of all patients in the study. Rates in South Korea and Russia, at 15.2 and 11.3 percent respectively, were more than twice the global estimate made by the World Health Organization.

The highest prevalence of MDR tuberculosis documented to date – 47.8 percent – was reported in 2011 in Minsk, Belarus, according to the Lancet study.

Though infection rates vary greatly between countries, scientists warn against stereotyping the disease as an issues solely of poorer, less developed nations: “MDR tuberculosis is not an issue isolated in one city or country, but reflects a wider public health threat resulting from severely resistant forms of M tuberculosis. To adequately address MDR tuberculosis, more solid epidemiological information is needed to increase overall understanding of disease development and transmission,” Sven Hoffner wrote in Lancet.

'Poverty returning to Europe'

Major Corporations Are Adjusting For The 'Pauperization Of Europe'

Wolf Richter

Testosterone Pit,

30 August, 2012

It started on Monday. “Poverty is returning to Europe,” said Jan Zijderveld, head of Unilever’s European operations, in an interview.

The British–Dutch consumer products company, third largest in the world, was adjusting its commercial strategy to this new reality, he said, by redeploying to Europe what worked in poor countries of the developing world.

Now the stars of the industry are affirming it. “The logic of pauperization,” L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon called it on Wednesday.

“If Spaniards are down to spending on average €17 per shopping trip, I can’t sell him detergent for half of his budget,” Zijderveld explained. “In Indonesia we sell individual packages of shampoo for 2 to 3 cents and still earn a fair amount.”

That this strategy was widespread in Asia I found out in Vietnam in 1996. I cut my finger at a table at a café in Hué as we were getting up. So, walking down the dirt street, I licked my finger to keep the blood from dripping on my clothes. The girl I was with, shocked by my barbaric behavior, took me to a street stall and bought me one singled Band-Aid, which cost as close to nothing as you could get. [My overland solo adventure from the Mekong Delta across Asia and Europe is the topic of a forthcoming book. The first in the series, Big Like: Cascade into an Odyssey—a “funny as hell non-fiction book about wanderlust and traveling abroad,” a reader tweeted—is available on Amazon.]

By looking at Europe, particularly Southern Europe, as a market with the characteristics of developing countries, Unilever has transitioned from seeing the debt crisis as a temporary event to seeing it as a trend to which it had to adjust its strategies. So now in Spain, it sells its “Surf” detergent in packages that are good for five loads. In Greece, it sells mashed potatoes and mayonnaise in small packages. And in Great Britain (!), it’s implementing the same strategy. Because people are running out of money. And it’s been successful. Since they started this in 2011, sales have stopped falling; and in the first half of the year, they edged up 1.1%. But higher input prices have exerted pressures on margins and profits.

“I agree, there is a movement of very sharp pauperization in Southern Europe,” Michel-Edouard Leclerc said on Wednesday—they’re now all coming out. He’s the CEO of E.Leclerc, the number one retailer in France with a market share of 18% and 556 semi-independent hypermarkets, supermarkets, and specialty stores. It also has numerous stores in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other countries. And the company is adjusting to the new reality. In Italy, for example, where the stores used to sell yogurt only in multi-packs, they’ve started to sell them as single items.

Jean-Paul Agon, CEO of L’Oréal, the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty products company, countered with a mixed message. No, the company wouldn’t adjust its products around the growing poverty in Europe, he said.

The race to the lowest price was “not our strategy.” Unlike the others, his company wouldn’t follow “the logic of pauperization and commoditization of products.” Rather he wanted to build on “innovation and added value,” which would allow the company to raise prices over time, “but reasonably.”

Which makes sense in light of L’Oréal’s earnings announcement Wednesday morning, a debacle which caused its stock to plummet 4.4%, the second worst performer of the CAC40—due to disappointing margins! Instead of smaller packages, it had tried heavy discounting, Agon admitted, “to adjust our strategy to the environment”—namely the pauperization of Europe. Even L’Oréal.

Meanwhile, a hullabaloo flared up in Germany over squashing democratic discussions on whether or not taxpayers should endlessly pay to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Read.... Gagging The “Hardliners” As The Economy Tanks And Future Exports Drop Into The Red Zone.

In Europe, governments and banks are like “a couple of drunks standing on the street corner holding each other up,” said Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research. It’s “highly regulated, highly taxed, and much more socially unstable,” and it’s going to be “the epicenter of the coming storm.” For the amazing interview, read.... Doug Casey Predicts Day Of Economic Reckoning Is Near.

Australasian news

Five killed in Australia's 'worst day' in Afghanistan

Australia has suffered its worst day in conflict since the Vietnam War after five soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Afghanistan

 

Radio NZ,

31 Sepetember, 2012

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has left the Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga to return to Australia. Speaking to reporters before her departure, she said it was the worst loss of Australian lives in combat in decades.

"This is a very big toll, but this means that in a war of so many losses this is our single worst day in Afghanistan. I believe this is the most losses in combat since the days of the Vietnam War and the Battle of Long Tan."

The Defence Force confirmed three soldiers were killed by a man in an Afghan army uniform in "a green on blue" attack at a base in Uruzgan Province in the south of the country on Wednesday.

Two other Australian soldiers were wounded in that incident. One suffered serious gunshot wounds and has been evacuated for further treatment, while the other has minor wounds and remains at the patrol base....

5.3 quake on West Coast

Radio NZ,

31 September, 2012

A shallow 5.3-magnitude earthquake has been recorded near Haast.

GNS says the earthquake struck at 7:38 am on Friday.

It was at a depth of 5km and was centred 40km south-west of Haast.

 

There were no immediate reports of damage.

President Morsi attacks Syria at Summit

Up to now there has been no coverage, and little acknowledgement of the NAM summit in Tehran – until now when there is difference.

First, the westerrn version of events and then, below, an interview which gives more context to President Morsi's speech.

Egyptian leader stuns Iran with plea to back Syrian rebels

President Mohamed Morsi uses speech in Iran, which is key sponsor of Syrian regime, to assert Cairo's regional ambitions

the Guardian,

30 August, 2012

Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi has said that the "oppressive" Syrian regime had lost all legitimacy, in a blistering speech in Tehran that provoked the Syrian delegation to storm out and amounted to a stunning rebuke to his Iranian hosts.

During the first visit by an Egyptian leader to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Morsi said the world had an "ethical duty" to support Syria's rebels.

"Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost legitimacy is ... a political and strategic necessity," he said.

"We all have to announce our full solidarity with the struggle of those seeking freedom and justice in Syria. [We should] translate this sympathy into a clear political vision that supports a peaceful transition to a democratic system of rule that reflects the demands of the Syrian people for freedom."

Morsi's comments to a meeting of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran amounted to a verbal handgrenade tossed at Iran's shocked leadership. Iran is the key regional sponsor of Syria's embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, and one of his few remaining international allies.

The remarks are also a bold assertion of post-revolutionary Egypt's renewed regional leadership ambitions. With the Middle East now dividing sharply along sectarian lines, Morsi has thrown his weight behind a powerful group of Sunni states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey that support Syria's rebels – with only Shia Iran, evermore isolated, backing Assad and his Shia Alawite-led regime.

Syria, predictably, responded with fury. Its foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, walked out. Damascus accused Egypt of interfering in its internal affairs and instigating bloodshed. In his own speech, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, failed to mention the 17-month Syrian conflict, while Iran's state-run media blanked out Morsi's criticism of Assad.

Morsi, a moderate Islamist, has proposed that Iran take part in a four-nation contact group including Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia that would mediate in the Syrian crisis. Morsi declared: "The bloodshed in Syria is the responsibility of all of us and will not stop until there is real intervention to stop it. The Syrian crisis is bleeding our hearts."

Morsi was apparently referring to diplomacy rather than any potential foreign invasion. He also hailed both Syrians and Palestinians for their "brave" struggle against oppression. He later met Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Analysts said the week-long summit had not been the smooth diplomatic triumph Iran might have hoped for.

"The Iranians rolled out the red carpet for Morsi. But he didn't follow the Iranian script. It was embarrassing for the Iranians," said David Hartwell, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, adding: "The non-aligned movement tries to be fairly anodyne and focused on anti-imperialism. But Syria has made it problematic. Egypt also views Iranian influence in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories as particularly unhelpful. It sees it as an Iranian/Shia attempt to spread influence in the region."

Of Morsi, he said: "We are learning about him. We don't know what his foreign policy is going to be."

Morsi is the first Egyptian leader to visit the Iranian capital since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Egypt and Iran fell out over Cairo's support for the Shah and its peace deal with Israel. Despite recent improvements, neither has upgraded ties to ambassadorial level.

Iran, meanwhile, faces diplomatic isolation and sanctions because of its alleged nuclear programme....

'We can't take Morsi at face value'

It’s no surprise that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi delivered a speech calling the Syrian government an “oppressive regime,” journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark says.

RT,

30 August, 2012

Egypt still depends on billions of dollars of US aid, so it was predictable that Morsi would turn up at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit and denounce Syria, Clark said.

Morsi’s controversial remarks prompted members of the Syrian delegation to walk out on the speech in protest.

Clark spoke with RT about the consequences of Morsi’s statement.

RT: Syria’s foreign minister has said that Morsi’s comments amount to inciting further violence in the country. What do you think?

Neil Clark: The problem I have with the speech is that it was so imbalanced. He didn’t criticize the rebels at all. The rebels have been responsible for much of the violence in Syria. The government too – that’s fair enough. But there were bombs going off this week at funerals, with 12 people killed, and he didn’t make any mention of that. So I can understand the Syrians feeling very aggrieved by what he said.

RT: Morsi would have foreseen that his statement, however accurate or inaccurate, would have angered Syrians and the hosts of the summit. What do you think his motivation was here?

NC: We’ve got to bear in mind the fact that Egypt receives about $1.56 billion US in aid. On top of that, back in August, they received $2 billion from Qatar. And of course, the US and Qatar are two of the leading hawks on Syria. So when you’re receiving that much money from the US and Qatar, it’s hardly surprising for Egypt to turn up at the summit and criticize Syria.

RT: The new Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi is perhaps already signaling his friendship with the West, or possibly with Capitol Hill. Do you think the 120 member-states attending the summit can come up with a way to resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria?

NC: The key player in this is the US. Unless we get a change of position from the US and its allies, I don’t see what the NAM movement can actually do. I think the ball is in America’s court, and all we’re getting from Washington is more right-wing rhetoric about arming rebels. So unless we get a major shift, it’s not going to help. And I’m afraid Egypt’s position isn’t helping at all.

RT: Mohammed Morsi appears to be on friendly terms with Iran, China, Israel and the US. There had been a talk of a possible geo-political shift in the Middle East. But do you think we can really take this new Egyptian leader at face value?

NC: I don’t think we can. I think people who are expecting a shift will be disappointed because of the financial hold that the US has over him. He’s trying to be all things to all people. He’s trying to be friendly with Israel and Iran. It doesn’t work. You have to make a choice and make a stand. If he wants to support the Palestinian people, then he can’t be friends with the current Israeli regime.

RT: Do you think Morsi was trying to undermine the summit with his comment? Even Ban Ki-moon, who attended the summit against the US and Israel’s wishes, hasn’t said anything as harsh as what Morsi said.

NC: Absolutely. I think it’s all part of the plan to go there and sabotage the summit. A lot of people were very naïve about Egypt. They thought there was going to be a meaningful change in Egypt’s foreign policy after what happened last year, but it’s continuing. It’s more of the same. I think that’s part of the game. The US will be very pleased with what Morsi said.

RT: Some possible plans have been put on the table to resolve the crisis in Syria – both Egypt and Iran have put forward plans to form mediator groups. Morsi suggests involving Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Ahmadinejiad suggests Egypt, Iran and Venezuela. Which one do you fancy the most?

NC: Well, if you look at the first choice, you’ve got three countries – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey – who actually want regime change in Syria, so they don’t want a peaceful, compromise solution. So I don’t think anything involving Saudi Arabia or Turkey is in the cards. The second option is better, but it doesn’t matter what mediator groups we set up. The key player in all this is the US. The US has to change its policies and allow Syrians to sort out their own futures and back out of Syria. Then we can get some peace and dialogue.

RT: Washington has said the Non-Aligned Movement Summit isn’t worthy of any high-level attendance. Do you think such criticism is justified?

NC: It’s two-thirds of the world and the US has the arrogance to say it doesn’t count. The US wants us to believe that only it and its allies represent the international community. The international community is meeting now in Tehran and the US doesn’t like it. The fact is that the US is getting more isolated on a series of issues. South America, African countries, China, Russia: That is the world and I think we’re going to see more of a shift in years to come. And the US power is in decline – that’s the reality. And that’s what they don’t like.

Russia's Gazprom puts Arctic project on hold

Gazprom puts Shtokman on hold

Gazprom says development of Russia's vast Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea has been put on hold for an indefinite time due to the high cost of the project.

RT,

30 August, 2012

Gazprom’s partners in the project – France's Total and Norway's Statoil, agreed with the decision that the project can not go ahead due to cost overruns, says Vsevolod Cherepanov, Head of Gazprom's production department. Gazprom has a 51% stake in the project, Total has 25% and Statoil has 24%. 

 

"All parties have come to the conclusion that the financing is too high to be able to do it for the time being," Cherepanov told a conference.

The development of the huge Shtokman deposit, which is one of the world’s largest and could potentially contain gas reserves of almost 4 trillion cubic metres, has been put off by several factors, including a shale gas revolution in the United States which had been viewed as a primary export market for Shtokman.

High taxes imposed by the Russian government have also complicated the negotiating process. The Shtokman partners have postponed their investment decision several times. The demand for gas has dropped in Europe, leading to a more modest export forecast by the Russian government.

A Statoil spokesman on Wednesday said the partners are still in talks over the project's future. "We have direct dialogue with Gazprom and still believe that it should be possible to implement this project, but a number of factors needs to fall into place," Jannik Lindbaek said.

Gazprom’s main spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov has confirmed to the Financial Times that the decision could be reviewed “only when conditions in the market change: either prices rise, or costs go down.”