Energy Blast, Feb. 6, 2008

Oil giant BP is cutting 5,000 jobs following a year that its chief executive said he “will be glad to leave behind”. The company’s talks with Gazprom over the Kovykya gas field have been stalled, meanwhile, “because it’s Russia, because it’s a complicated deal.” BP is also in talks with the Iraqi Government about a plan to boost oil production at the huge Rumaila field on the border with Kuwait. The presidents of Russia and Uzbekistan will meet to discuss the development of the natural gas transportation infrastructure in the Central Asian region. It was agreed last year that they would modernize the 1974 pipeline. Russia has called on Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program pending the outcome of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency over “complicated points” in its nuclear program.

Sibir Energy, the oil producer owned by Russian billionaire Shalva Tchigirinsky and the city of Moscow, said output rose 80% last year as it increased production at its Salym project.World EnergyNeftegaz Ukrainy has urged RosUkrEnergo to allow it to buy all gas designated for Ukraine, bypassing Ukrgaz Energo.On wind energy: “Which is the most dangerous threat to [the UK] – the launch of a Cold War-style attack on Britain by the Russians, with the MiGs gaining a few seconds advantage from turbine clutter on our radar screens, or the imminent disappearance of the polar icecap and the engulfing of the East Coast by the North Sea?”