Energy Blast – Oct 18, 2011

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in Ukraine today to discuss natural gas contracts; President Viktor Yanukovych says that the current gas agreement is ‘discriminatory, unfair and enslaving’, and is seeking lower prices.  Yanukovych says that, if Ukraine does not get what it wants, it will be forced to raise domestic prices.  Conditions in Russia are good right now for fuel exports, says Bloomberg, so much so that analysts are anticipating short-term shortages.  Gazprom Neft is expecting profits to rise by 73% this year, to $5.4 billion.  The board of TNK-BP is considering getting minority shareholders on board to help with its lawsuit against BP over the Rosneft deal.  Despite this, BP says that TNK-BP remains its principal investment vehicle in Russia, with Robert Dudley saying that the company ‘is performing very well and we remain absolutely committed to it.’  Norway’s Statoil has announced plans to buy U.S. company Brigham Exploration for $4.7 billion, and is to unveil details of what it calls a ‘giant’ oil find in two weeks.  India’s Reliance Industries has suspended drilling at the oil and gas blocks it shares with BP whilst it ‘re-evaluates’ its strategy.