Energy Blast – Feb 18th, 2009

The $25 billion in energy loans to Russia from China, confirmed yesterday, include agreements that will give Sinopec and PetroChina access to Russian oil at around $20 a barrel, says Bloomberg.  Transneft and Rosneft, the recipients of the loan, have reportedly secured interest rates of 5.0-5.5%, which a Russian government source described as ‘an unprecedented success’.  It has also emerged that Transneft is planning to start building a Chinese leg of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline later this year, which could then supply China with crude oil for the next twenty years.  Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service says it has started investigations into major oil firms Rosneft, LUKoil, Gazpromneft and TNK-BP over high prices. Halliburton has won a $98.7 million contract to install offshore oil well components for Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos.