Energy Blast – Oct 21, 2009

Luke Harding has two pieces on Russian climate change in today’s Guardian: an audio report on Northern-Siberia’s seasonal shifts, and a special report on the Yamal peninsula.  Rumors abound that China, Japan, Russia and France have been in secret talks on using an alternative to the dollar for oil trading, but OPEC’s Secretary General says that, even if there were to be a shift, it would be a long process, and that ‘tradition‘ would make it difficult.  Serbian oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Gazprom Neft, has signed a $100 million loan with Bank of Moscow on the back of Medvedev’s Belgrade visit.  Italy, Russia, and Turkey, have signed a joint statement on the construction of the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline linking Turkey’s Black Sea coast and Mediterranean coast (the New York Times has a special report today on Turkey’s alternative energy plans). State-controlled nuclear fuel supplier TVEL forecasts that it will have a 25% share of the world’s nuclear fuel market by 2030.  Gazprom has made similar claims on a 2020 share in 10% of the U.S. natural gas market.  Although that share might be relatively small, suggests this article, if the demand for natural gas in industrialized nations is ‘cooling‘.  Oslo-based Aladdin will start natural-gas production in Russia next month on the back of an agreement with Gazprom.  Denmark is the first country to grant final permission to Gazprom’s Nord Stream project, allowing the company to place its natural gas pipeline through Danish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.