Energy Blast – June 17, 2009

Gazprom has announced it will delay the launch of the Bovanenkovo field on Siberia’s Yamal peninsula until the third quarter of 2012.  Ukraine is looking for $4 billion in credit from Europe to buy Russian gas for its subterranean storage facilities.  Vladimir Putin has decried regulators who make ‘bureaucratic obstacles’ to accessing Russia’s oil and gas fields.  Sinopec is drilling a seventh exploration well in Saudi Arabia in the hope of finding a significant amount of natural gas.  Iraq’s oil ministry has asserted that it will have auctioned contracts to foreign companies by the end of June, despite the Oil Minister being called to ask questions regarding the deals.  China and Russia’s increasing crude oil trade is an ‘important breakthrough’ in their relationship, according to Chinese President Hu Jintao.  Korea National Oil Company and China’s Sinopec are competing for the takeover of Switzerland-based oil and gas explorer Addax Petroleum, which they value at more than $8 billion.  The Financial Times reports upon the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is attempting to develop a nuclear reactor that would imitate the energy of the sun.