Energy Blast – May 1, 2012

British oil major BP has reported a larger-than-anticipated drop in profits (from $4.93 billion in the quarter, against a $5.61 billion profit in the same period last year) despite higher oil prices, due to ongoing financial fallout of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.  This piece of news suggests there are some things that Alexander Lebedev likes as much, if not more, than running Gazprom.  Serbia’s natural-gas monopoly, Srbijagas, has seen a 42% increase in profit for last year.  Danish utility DONG apparently has plans to enter into the British retail energy market through the acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Shell Gas Direct for $48.72 million.