Energy Blast – March 27, 2012

The Telegraph reports that an exclusion zone has been established around Total’s leaking Elgin Franklin oil and gas platform in the North Sea and 85 workers have been evacuated from a rig nearby by Shell.  Gazprom International, the global subsidiary of Moscow-based oil and gas company Gazprom, is reportedly in talks with Libya’s National Oil Corporation and the authorities on the possible resumption of activities in Libya under new conditions.  Why Vladimir Putin has Gazprom worried, from the FT.    France’s Total has cut its oil production outlook at the Kharyaga project in northern Russia due to a reevaluation of its reserves.  Oil trader Vitol has sold a cargo of Russian Urals crude to Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum in a rare tender, as the country prepares to reduce its reliance on imports from Iran, ahead of the EU-wide embargo.  TNK-BP has sold two cargoes of East Siberian Pacific Ocean crude for May loading, one to Gunvor Ltd. and one to Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Bloomberg reports.  Rosneft has offered 1.2 million tonnes of high-sulphur gasoil for loading over May to October in a term tender.  Seaborne exports of Urals crude oil from Russia’s Baltic ports will rise by 28% in April from March’s figures.  Russian power group Bashkirenergo has apparently agreed to de-merge its electricity grid and power generation assets and pass control of the separate divisions over to two main shareholders.  In what would be its biggest ever sale of North Sea assets, BP has put around $3.2 billion of its holdings there up for sale.