Energy Blast – June 9, 2009

Japan and Russia are set to publish 2020 goals for greenhouse gas emissions, to help push the UN towards talks on a new climate treaty.  Gazprom is reportedly seeking $10.5 billion in loans from state owned banks, as a way of ‘insuring’ itself.  Ukraine needs roughly $3 billion a year to pay Gazprom for gas supplies to ensure that gas transit is not interrupted.  Natural gas has been the worst performing commodity this year, according to Bloomberg, with a drop of 34% and stockpiles 22% larger than the five-year average. However, ‘the scope for gas to rally before the end of the year is bigger than for oil’.  Gazprom and Norway’s StatoilHydro have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow them to participate jointly in exploration, development and production in the Arctic region.  StatoilHydro has restarted production at its three North Sea fields.  Heritage Oil is set to merge with Genel Energy International, a unit of Turkey’s Cukurova Group, which would create a company focused on Kurdistan, worth around $5.5 billion.