Energy Blast – July 2, 2012

The Nabucco gas pipeline consortium is seeking new investors in a bid to salvage the project, which is suffering from financial problems.  Vietnamese protesters gathered in Hanoi yesterday against China’s moves to strengthen its claims on disputed islands in the South China Seaand its invitations to firms for offshore drilling in areas that Vietnam claims are its own.  The FT reports on the scramble to access the oil under Angola’s seabed.  The Iranian oil minister is ‘playing down’ the effects of EU sanctions, saying that Iran has ‘many friends’ who will buy its oil and it is ‘not concerned’.  Britain’s Heritage Oil will pay Shell, Total and ENI $850 million for access to the OML 30 oilfields in Nigeria.  Statoil has made a significant discovery of gas and condensate in the North Sea.