Energy Blast – Dec 22, 2011

The death toll from the Kolskaya oil rig has reached 17, with 36 men still missing.  Serbia’s Srbijagas gas monopoly has agreed a 10-year deal with Gazprom, to import natural gas at a discounted price – although the deal still requires parliamentary approval.  Gazprom and Germany’s RWE have terminated talks about joint power production ventures, having been unable to agree on ‘a framework for cooperation’.  Russia’s Rosneft has overtaken ExxonMobil as the world’s largest publicly-traded crude producer.  The company has just bought a 50% stake in the aviation fuel complex at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, for $550 million.  India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp has bought two cargoes of West African crude oil (950,000 barrels each) from Exxon Mobil.