Energy Blast – Oct 31, 2011

TNK-BP is apparently on the cusp of agreeing on a $1 billion deal to buy a 45% stake in Amazon oil exploration blocks from Brazil’s HRT Participacoes.   As it moves to produce gas in Western Europe, under an agreement with BASF, Gazprom will start production in the North Sea.  An Iranian Oil Ministry source has rebuffed reports that Indian oil buyers have begun paying for their crude through Gazprombank as a way of circumventing sanctions-related obstacles.  Denmark has apparently welcomed what it calls China’s ‘legitimate economic interests in the Arctic’.  ‘The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere. The new energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, down through North Dakota and South Texas, past a major new discovery off the coast of French Guyana to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil’: Daniel Yergin discusses future energy geopolitics in the Washington Post.