Energy Blast – Oct 19, 2011

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov is opposed to exempting Gazprom from transfer-pricing rules next year, which could leave the company open to fines for non-market transactions.  Turkmenistan supports EU plans to create a trans-Caspian energy pipeline, and ‘will ignore attempts by Russia to impede its efforts’.  Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev says that Russia will not ‘subsidize’ deliveries of natural gas to China: ‘We believe that a country with the largest foreign currency reserves can and should buy gas on the same principal terms as China’s neighbors in the region.’  Gazprom could begin providing Indian Oil Corp with up to 2.5 million metric tons of LNG per year.  Ukraine’s bid to reduce the price it pays for Russian gas is linked to the next tranche of its $15 billion IMF bailout, Bloomberg reports.  Serbia is pushing up gas prices for commercial and domestic consumers for the first time in three years.  Gazprom Neft anticipates that its SeverEnergiya venture with Eni SpA will need $9.2 billion in investment by 2030.  As Ukraine’s relationship with the E.U. disintegrates, talks of regional cooperation with Russia take a positive turn on both sides.  The future deputy prime minister of Poland dismisses the harsher allegations about shale gas extraction.