Energy Blast – August 18, 2009

Yesterday’s fatal accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant will present a considerable setback in Russia’s attempts to increase its power production, says the New York Times.  It will take ‘years rather than months to restore three of the 10 turbines’ that were destroyed.  President Medvedev has said that Russian oil enterprises should increase their presence around the Caspian Sea to reenforce the region’s economy.  Lukoil has announced that hydrocarbon production in the first six months of the year increased 2% on last year and crude production by 4%.  Oerlikon has won a solar order worth $277 million from Nano Solar Technology, a business partly owned by Viktor Vekselberg, who has a controlling interest in Oerlikon itself.  Turkey may call off a tender for its first nuclear power reactor in order to create a new framework under which the state can hold a stake in the factory.  Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola has said that Italy will decrease its dependence on Russian gas and won’t ‘ever’ be reliant on one single country for its supplies, but will look to Algeria and Libya for the fuel.  Russia will raise oil duty from $222 to $238.6 per metric ton from September 1.