Energy Blast – June 4, 2012

The Telegraph wonders if BP’s Bob Dudley will be able to ensure a clean exit from the troubled TNK-BP venture.  Not if AAR has anything to do with it, argues the FT.  The Guardian considers if moving into Africa could be a fruitful starting point for the British major, following a departure from Russia.  The conclusion of BP’s uneasy waltz with Russia ‘signals the end for John Browne’s vision of a British driller able to challenge Exxon Mobil Corp’.  President Putin has reportedly confirmed the legality of the gas contracts that Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko, signed with Russia while in office.  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun a tour of the Arctic, in a reminder of US interest in the energy riches of the zone.  Rick Smith of Environmental Defence Canada has calls the Canadian government’s plans to revise environmental laws to facilitate oil extraction ‘a war on nature and democracy.’   The Environmental Defense Fund has expressed grave concerns about hydraulic fracturing.