The tricks Earthmen play

Greece signs an excellent deal for supply of gas from Russia. The deal is signed  somewhere between Feb 9 and Feb 26. Now read the news items below and wonder if a Tom Clancy wannabe is gonna write a book on the how, the why and the when.... only this time round, it won't be fiction.

From Reuters via Downstream dated Feb 26, 2014
...Greece's natural gas distributor DEPA   has clinched a new gas supply deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom, which includes a 15 percent price cut backdated to last July, Greece's energy ministry said on Tuesday.
The new agreement extends a current deal between the two companies by 10 years to 2026, the energy ministry said in a statement, confirming what sources told Reuters last week.....

From Reuters via Downstream dated Feb 26, 2014:
...Fire Breaks Out at Lukoil's Stavrolen Petrochemical Plant in S. Russia.
- A fire broke out at Lukoil's petrochemical plant in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk, wounding some, a local Emergency Ministry said on Wednesday.
The Emergency Ministry said the fire broke out after a loss of pressure in the ethylene section of the Stavrolen plant in Russia's southern region of Stavropol. It did not say how many people were injured.
A spokeswoman for Lukoil declined to comment....

From Reuters via Downstream  dated Feb 28, 2014:
...The European Union could extend financial aid to Ukraine to overhaul its gas pipeline network, the bloc's Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said.
Ukraine is an important transit pipeline route for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe and current political tensions there follow the government's decision to spurn a pact with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.
"We are prepared to help with the overhaul of the gas pipeline network of Ukraine," Oettinger said. "This involves a high triple digit million euros sum."
Oettinger's comments, confirmed by the European Commission on Friday, were made in an interview with German magazine Focus.
Commission spokeswoman Sabine Berger said the executive was "acting as a facilitator for the international financial institutions to provide the necessary loans" to help modernise Ukraine's ageing infrastructure.
Ukraine stunned the EU by spurning a trade deal in November and President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to side instead with Russia triggered mass protests, which led to his ouster.......

From Oil&GasJournal 
....Fire hits at Tatarstan refinery An investigation is under way into a fire that broke out on Mar. 3 at TAIF Group’s 7 million tonne/year Nizhnekamsk refinery in Tatarstan, Russia.....

From Reuters via Downstream dated March 4, 2014
....Russia's Nizhnekamsk Refinery to Halt Gasoline Output After Fire. 
Repairing damage caused by a fire at the gasoline production unit of the Nizhnekamsk refinery will likely take at least two months and probably stop production, Russia's Emergency Ministry and an industry source said on Tuesday.
The Emergency Ministry for the Russian region of Tatarstan said on its website that a fire broke out on Monday at one of the units at the refinery, part of Russian mid-sized oil producer Tatneft.
The fire caused no injuries and was put out the same evening, it said.
An industry source said diesel production was unaffected.
The refinery refined 8.26 million tonnes of oil and produced 579,100 tonnes of gasoline and 2.05 million tonnes of diesel last year, according to the Energy Ministry.
Gasoline from the refinery is consumed domestically.
Production of naphtha, exports of which reached around 1.77 million tonnes last year, was unaffected, the industry source said........