Energy Blast – June 18, 2009

Dmitry Medvedev and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in natural gas, which may lead to Gazprom taking out a loan from China to deliver LNG.  Russia has delayed plans to build pipelines to China because it cannot agree on a price with Bejing.  MOL has received a €200 million loan from the EBRD to finance a gas storage facility and the bank may be willing to put ‘substantial’ financial backing into Nabucco.  Gazprom has hinted that it may postpone the opening of another major field because of the downturn.  The company says that Russia will not impose a fine on Ukraine for importing less gas than agreed, but Putin hopes that the country will ‘continue to observe discipline’.  The legal specialist of Gazprom Neft has become the CEO of Sibir as Gazprom has upped its stake in the company to 33.5%, becoming the largest shareholder.  The Vice President of Lukoil has recommended that Russia join OPEC so as to have more clout in determining oil prices.  The European Commission is looking to have special powers to organize gas flow in the event of a gas transit suspension.