Energy Blast – Sept 26, 2011

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told the UN that Tehran needs 20,000 megawatts of electricity generated by nuclear energy and is in talks with Russia on building more reactors.  ‘[T]here is little doubt that the Obama administration is pursuing a program of high-tech sabotage to disrupt Tehran’s suspected weapons-related nuclear efforts’ says the Washington Post.  President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych, along with Vladimir Putin, have held an informal meeting to discuss ways to resolving the long-running gridlock over contracted terms for Russian gas sold to Ukraine.  Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, who was also party to talks, apparently told the Russian president that ‘considerable progress was reached in the issues under discussion […] which makes it possible to hope for reaching corresponding agreements in the interests of both sides’.  The Telegraph reports that BP can look forward to a $610 million windfall after directors at its problematic Russian joint venture TNK-BP agreed a $1 billion special dividend.