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South Stream & NabuccoConventional media profiling

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Purpose of this study

1 2

To evaluate the conventional-media

image of South Stream and its major

competitor Nabucco;

To identify major themes that appear in

the conventional media coverage and

their impact on the evaluated pipeline

projects;Identify major themes that appear in the

EBRD mediacoverage;

To analyse leading news sources and

journalists and their attitudes toward the

major competitors in the industry;

To measure the nature of the media

reputation such as key drivers of media

coverage and interest.

3 4

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South Stream gained speed. The deal between Russia and Turkey removed a major road block to the construction of the South Stream pipeline. After a long period of negotiations, Turkey finaly granted Russia permission to construct the South Stream pipeline under the Black Sea.

The South Stream recent progress in Turkey and Montenegro gave the Russian pipeline project serious edge against Nabucco and made Nabucco look redundant. South Stream has serious political support and secured gas supplies.

South Stream has serious political support and secured gas supplies.

Conventional-media image snapshot

Nabucco might have become redundant. The deal between Russia and Turkey removed a major road block to the construc-tion of the South Stream pipeline and seriously hurt Nabucco’s prospects.

Nabuccos has struggled with high costs and no secured gas supplies.

German utility RWE, one of Nabucco’s major sharehold-ers, announced it would reconsider its participation in the project.

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During the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012 South Stream enjoyed an extremely positive im-age. The media announced Russia signed a trea-ty with Turkey eliminating one of the last major obstacles ahead of the project and emphasised the strong political backing of the project.

On the other hand, the media was abundant with reports of Nabucco’s grim outlook. Vari-ous news outlets and analysts pointed out South Stream’s recent progress seriously hindered Nabucco’s prospects. On top of that, the EU-back pipeline project still struggled to secure financ-ing and gas supplies.

Additionally, one of Nabucco’s major share-holders, German energy company RWE, publicly announced it might reconsider its participa-tion in the project, further shedding grim light on the project.

Overall, the major news and business publications reported almost exclusively on the progress of the pipeline projects – securing international agree-ments, gas supplies and financing. The media shied away from discussing the geopolitical as-pects of the projects.

A total of 226 articles featuring the South Stream and Nabucco pipeline projects were harvested from English language major news and business publications for the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012.

Nabucco appeared in 116 articles while South Stream was featured in 110 articles during the period. It must be noted that a large portion of Nabucco’s media coverage was triggered by events directly related to South Stream. The media was focused on South Stream signing a deal with Tur-key and Vladimir Putin urging Gazprom to speed up the construction of the pipeline. Nabucco was mentioned briefly as the news out-lets pointed out these recent developments seri-ously hit Nabucco’s prospects.

Key findings

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South StreamKey findings

There were 110 articles featuring the South Stream pipeline project in the English language major news and business publications around the world during the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012.

The media sentiment toward the Russian pipeline project was extremely favourable as news broke out Turkey gave Russia permission to build the pipeline across the Black Sea. Also, the media reported on Vladimir Putin urging Gazprom to step up the construction of the pipeline.

The negative coverage on South Stream re-volved around the actual high construction costs and issues securing the financing of the project. Moreover, Moscow was criticised for using South Stream as a geopolitical tool to bully its neighbours and the European Union.

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Turkey’s decision to grant Russia permission to build South Stream was the media highlight during the monitored period. The major news and business publications pointed out this permission removed a major roadblock to the project and has given South Stream serious advantage over its main competitor Nabucco.

Additionally, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin openly expressed his support of the project and called for its acceleration.

Mainly US and UK news outlets reported on South Stream. That comes as these coun-tries host the major news and business news agen-cies like Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Reuters which closely monitor any developments related to high profile pipeline projects around the world.

The heartland of the EU, Belgium, was ex-tremely critical of the South Stream project. The EU Observer, based in Brussels, focused on the geopolitical aspect of the pipeline project.`

South StreamKey themes & countries

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The United Press International (UPI) pub-lished 11 articles featuring the South Stream pipe-line project. UPI provided relatively detailed re-counts of recent developments from the natural resource extraction industry.

Reuters US and Reuters UK had 9 and 6 ar-ticles, respectively, on South Stream during the monitoring period. The articles simply reported on the progress of the project and did not delve into details. Bloomberg and its proxy Busi-nessWeek (5 articles each), as well as Dow Jones and AFP (4 articles each) applied a similar approach when discussing South Stream.

On the other hand, Turkish Today’s Zaman (6 articles), The Financial Times (4 articles), and The Wall Street Journal (2 articles) ran a series of ar-ticles featuring in-depth analysis and expert opinions.

The EU Observer, based in Brussels, was ex-tremely critical of South Stream as it focused on the geopolitical aspect of the pipeline project. Oliver Geden, author of one of the EU Observer articles and an analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, stated South Stream was nothing more than a geopoliti-cal tool that lacked sound economic justi-fication, and lately Kremlin has been on a PR rampage trying to sow serious doubts about the feasibility of Nabucco.

Vladimir Soldatkin form Reuters and Vladimir Isachenkov from the Associated Press were the journalists who reported most on South Streem (7 and 5 articles, respectively). Their original articles from Reuters and AP were picked up and repub-lished by other news outlets during the period. Both journalists tracked major news and develop-ments in the natural gas industry.

Dmitri Zaks from AFP (4 articles) stated Gazprom was experiencing serious difficulties se-curing the funding for the South Stream project.

Another AFP journalist, Fulya Ozerka also published 4 articles featuring South Stream. She claimed the Russia- Turkey South Stream agree-ment was a deadly blow to the EU-backed Nabuc-co project.

Anna Shiryaevskaya from Bloomberg had 4 articles commenting on Gazprom South Stream negotiations with Greece and the gas company’s investment schedule and plans for 2012.

South StreamTop sources & journalists

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Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, was the most frequently cited company representative in the media during the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012 (18 articles). He commented on Turkey’s permission to build the South Stream pipeline as well as the ongoing gas network negotiations with Ukraine.

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Pu-tin was quoted 15 times in the media. He also discussed Turkey’s permission to construct the South Stream pipe and elaborated the recent cold weather and gas shortages in Europe proved the EU needs the South Stream project.

Taner Yildiz, Turkey’s Energy Minister, was the most frequently quoted commentator in the media. He was cited 8 times explaining Turkey’s decision to allow the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline.

Mete Goknel, Former Director of BOTAS, and Necdet Pamir, Former Director of TPAO, were quoted 4 times each discussing the Russian-Turkish South Stream deal and its impact on Nabucco’s prospects.

South StreamTop spokespeople & analysts

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There were 116 articles featuring the Nabucco pipeline project in the English-language major news and business publications around the world during the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012.

The media sentiment toward the EU-backed pipeline project was extremely negative as news broke out Turkey granted Russia permission to build Nabucco’s main competitor – the South Stream gas pipeline. This development seriously hindered Nabucco’s prospects.

Reports of issues with the financing and the procurement of gas supplies for the project additionally contributed to the negative image of the pipeline during this period.

The limited positive coverage on Nabucco revolved mainly on key stakeholders express-ing their support for the project despite the gloomy turn of events.

NabuccoKey findings

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Nabucco fell under the media scrutiny as its main competitor South Stream got fast tracked after Turkey granted Russia permission to proceed with the construction of the pipeline under the Black Sea. This turn of events made Nabucco look redundant and falling behind its main competitor.

Additionally, the media pointed out Nabuc-co has been struggling for quite some time with rising construction costs and has not been able to secure gas supplies for the pipeline.

Furthermore, RWE, one of Nabucco’s ma-jor shareholders, officially announced its inten-tion to reconsider its participation in the project.

Mainly US and UK news outlets reported on Nabucco. These countries host the major news and business news agencies like Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Reuters which closely monitor any developments related to high profile pipeline projects around the world.

NabuccoKey themes & countries

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The United Press International (UPI) pub-lished 22 articles reporting about Nabucco. UPI provided relatively detailed recounts of recent developments from the natural resource extrac-tion industry.

Bloomberg and its proxy BusinessWeek had 8 articles each featuring Nabucco. Reuters US and Reuters UK followed with 6 articles each. The arti-cles simply reported on the progress of the project and did not delve into details.

Henning Gloystein from Reuters was the journalist who reported most on Nabucco (4 arti-cles). He focused on RWE’s decision to reevaluate its involvement in the Nabucco project.

Mark Adomanis from Forbes ran a series of articles discussing the EU and US foreign policy and how they shaped the current “gas wars” (3 arti-cles).

Daren Butler & Vladimir Soldatkin from Reuters and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen from Dow Jones published 3 articles each reporting on various key events from the natural gas industry.

NabuccoTop sources & journalists

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Christian Dolezal, Head of Communications at Nabucco, and Juergen Grossmann, RWE’s CEO, were the most frequently cited company repre-sentatives in the media during the period 20 Dec 2011 – 20 Feb 2012 (5 mentions each). They com-mented on Nabucco’s future outlook in the con-text of South Stream gaining speed and Nabucco’s inability to secure gas supplies for its pipeline.

Marlene Holzner, the spokeswoman for Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, was cited 6 times stating the EU would continue to pursue en-ergy resource diversification regardless of Nabuc-co’s faith.

Taner Yildiz, Turkey’s Energy Minister, was quoted 3 times in the media. Although Turkey was among Nabucco’s major shareholders he openly expressed support for the project only once. He did so in a UPI.com article too.

NabuccoTop spokespeople & analysts

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The research evaluates the overall media reputation of South Stream and Nabucco by analysing the appearance of the gas pipelines in major general and busi-ness English-language news sources.

The articles have been harvest-ed from news aggregators. The selection excludes media with life-style and sports focus; economy and politics-focused media are prioritised due to goals of the research.

The study covers only relevant editorial articles and postings, excluding republished press releases and articles (links from different source) as well as passing mentions.

Spokespeople numbers include actual citing by media, not all men-tions.

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Methodology & general information

The methodology

Contacts

Perceptica Media Research is a product of AII Data Processing (www.aiidatapro.com), a worldwide provider of data management, business content and media evaluation services with over 15 years of experience. The company employs more than 270 people supporting 30+ languages, 24/7, out of its offices in Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. AII Data Processing is also the publisher of SeeNews (www.seenews.com), the business news and market intelligence supplier, and of SeeNews TOP 100, the ranking of the biggest companies in Southeast Europe.

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