Energy Blast – Nov 3, 2011

At a meeting in St Petersburg, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have affirmed that they will pursue plans to build a gas pipeline linking the two countries via North Korea.  According to the Independent, fifty separate earth tremors in the Blackpool area of Northern England were caused by controversial shale gas extraction.  Private company Cuadrilla Resources has acknowledged the seismic activity was provoked by fracking, but assured residents it will not occur again.  Bloomberg sees the resurrection of Chesapeake Energy Corp as the result of the ‘game-changing’ gas.  Ukraine’s Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov has stated that the 2009 gas agreement with Russia put Ukraine ‘on the brink of collapse’.  A new report by the IAEA on Iran’s nuclear regime is unlikely to bring consensus on how to handle Tehran’s program as long as Russia and China continue to resist putting pressure on Ahmadinejad, Reuters argues.   The European Union has initiated a probe into whether iron and steel fittings for industrial tubes and pipes from Russia and Turkey are being dumped at illegally low prices, which could potentially damage the interests of EU producers.  India will delay the start of a $2.6 billion nuclear plant built with Russia’s help because of protests from local villagers.