Russia will ‘never’ sign up to a second implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, ‘because it would not cover every country’. Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko has announced that Oman has joined the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. An International Energy Agency report says that Russia wastes almost one-third of the energy it uses domestically: ‘Potential yearly savings of natural gas alone, about 180 billion cubic meters, are equivalent to Gazprom’s entire annual export volumes.’ Chevron looks likely to be the next oil supermajor to break into Kurdistan in northern Iraq, reports The Independent. One of TNK-BP’s partners estimates the producer’s worth at $65 billion, whilst denying plans to sell. The WSJ considers TNK-BP’s long-term rivalry with BP, a rivalry which AAR principal German Khan applauds as ‘good for [the] compan[y]’. Gazprom’s pipeline gas supply talks with China are currently stalled, with the company saying that it expects to rely heavily instead on LNG exports to Asia; Dmitry Medvedev nonetheless expects that Russia’s future natural gas supplies to China will equal current volumes exported to Europe. Sueddeutsche Zeitung says that Russia and Germany are preparing to establish closer communication on electricity and gas supply.