The twilight of the oil Eldorado. How the activity of Russian oil companies on the EU market has evolved. OSW Studies 55, April 2016

The European Union has traditionally been the most important outlet for Russian oil exports. At the same time, during the period 2011-2014 a systematic decline was observed in crude oil supplies to the EU, while at the same time the export of petroleum products increased. It is now difficult to say that Russia is following a coherent oil strategy vis-a-vis the EU. The current shape of Russian activity is more the result of the business interests of individual companies, rather than the result of activities coordinated by the state. Although in the short term (up to 2020), the negative trend in crude oil exports to the EU could be halted (as confirmed by the figures for 2015), the long-term prospects for Russia's position on the EU market are pessimistic. This is because the importance of factors unfavourable to Russia is rising, such as the decrease in consumption of oil in the EU, the increased competition among exporters to the EU market, and the deterioration of the climate of Russian/EU cooperation in the context of the anti-Russian sanctions, as well as unclear prospects for the development of the upstream sector in Russia.

Desempregados de longa duração e processos de desfiliação: população dos 35 aos 55 anos, no concelho de Portalegre

A dissertação aborda o desemprego, no concelho de Portalegre, na faixa etária dos 35 aos 55 anos. O aumento do desemprego é uma realidade que tem gerado movimentos sociais, como os protestos e as greves. A proposta da dissertação foi explorar o fenómeno sob a perspectiva de Erikson e de Castel, compreendendo a trajetória profissional dos indivíduos em questão. Além disso, procurou-se perceber como as transformações no mundo do trabalho, influenciam o processo de desvinculação com a identidade profissional. A pesquisa, de caráter qualitativo, utilizou entrevistas semi-dirigidas e as histórias de vida, sendo colhidos sete depoimentos de desempregados de longa duração, provenientes deste flagelo. Da análise de conteúdo foram levantadas diferentes categorias para tratamento de dados, como a contextualização profissional, o posicionamento face à situação de desemprego e por ultimo a análise identitária. Os resultados mostram que a situação de desemprego pode efetivamente ditar traços de desfiliação na identidade dos desempregados, idênticas às verificadas na literatura utilizada. Os entrevistados recorrem frequentemente a formas de coping, usando a “focalização ativa”, centrando-se na resolução dos seus problemas, mantendo uma postura ativa, mesmo em situação de descrença, sendo a postura mais eficaz para a procura de emprego. Finalizamos esta investigação com algumas sugestões de pesquisa futuras, deixando também um projeto de intervenção psicológico, fazendo sugestões de técnicas de procura de emprego, de inserção social e de técnicas de trabalho de autoestima, de autoimagem e de autoconceito.

Data compilation of ESOP

The work in this sub-project of ESOP focuses on the advective and convective transforma-tion of water masses in the Greenland Sea and its neighbouring areas. It includes observational work on the sub-mesoscale and analysis of hydrographic data up to the gyre-scale. Observations of active convective plumes were made with a towed chain equipped with up to 80 CTD sensors, giving a horizontal and vertical resolution of the hydrographic fields of a few metres. The observed scales of the penetrative convective plumes compare well with those given by theory. On the mesoscale the structure of homogeneous eddies formed as a result of deep convection was observed and the associated mixing and renewal of the intermediate layers quantified. The relative importance and efficiency of thermal and haline penetrative convection in relation to the surface boundary conditions (heat and salt fluxes and ice cover) and the ambient stratification are studied using the multi year time series of hydro-graphic data in the central Greenland Sea. The modification of the water column of the Greenland Sea gyre through advection from and mixing with water at its rim is assessed on longer time scales. The relative contributions are quantified using modern water mass analysis methods based on inverse techniques. Likewise the convective renewal and the spreading of the Arctic Intermediate Water from its formation area is quantified. The aim is to budget the heat and salt content of the water column, in particular of the low salinity surface layer, and to relate its seasonal and interannual variability to the lateral fluxes and the fluxes at the air-sea-ice interface. This will allow to estimate residence times for the different layers of the Greenland Sea gyre, a quantity important for the description of the Polar Ocean carbon cycle.