# In case you were wondering why Putin is after Ukraine...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 14, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656 "2014-03-14T00:01:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656/1 "2014-03-14T00:01:27Z")

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… and why US should be involved.

[http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/talking-numbers/this-oil-giant-could-get-crush-by-ukraine-200317976.html](http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/talking-numbers/this-oil-giant-could-get-crush-by-ukraine-200317976.html)

Ukraine sits on 39 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. That’s about one-quarter the world’s entire proven reserves. One company that has bet big on Ukraine’s natural gas is US-based Chevron.

And once these are developed, the multiple pipelines to transport the gas are already built.

Although I doubt that this is one-quarter of the world’s entire proven reserves. But 39 trillion cu ft is not chump change.

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**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656/2 "2014-03-14T00:12:48Z")

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Followup: whoever wrote the article screwed up in converting cu ft to m^3. 39T ft^3 is about half a percent of world reserves.

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656/3 "2014-03-14T04:39:25Z")

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If you’re advocating that if we send troops overseas to fight a war against Russia, that we outright state that it’s over oil, then I guess I can get behind that kind of honesty. 🙂

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656/4 "2014-03-14T23:14:16Z")

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[Wikipedia backs you up](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_natural_gas_proven_reserves): 1.104 x 10^12 or the 24th largest reserve. 0.59% of the world. Russia is #1, US #5 (Qatar, wow!).

Iraq was about blood for oil, so they say. Well I hope people realize that you can trade a liquid for a gas; it’s gotta be CNG first or we might get ripped off! That said, oil is more useful for my lifestyle as I don’t use much gas except maybe propane to light a small stove once a year; no heating or anything. Therefore this war would be immoral!

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**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-were-wondering-why-putin-is-after-ukraine/683656/5 "2014-03-14T23:45:59Z")

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[Charge!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE1huPYerp0)