The planned expansion of the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant could cost Gazprom $7 billion. The company says its European exports received an 8.2% boost last year thanks to recovering demand in Italy and Turkey. Wermuth Asset Management hopes to attract foreign companies to Russia’s clean technology sector with a new fund targeting the Yelabuga region in Tatarstan. Russian Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko, says that all outstanding issues related to PSAs (production sharing agreements) signed in the 1990s, have been ‘settled for good’. This week’s planned IPOs for three US gas companies will be a useful test for the 2012 market, says the FT. A World Trade Organization panel has ruled that China was violating global trading rules by restricting exports of certain raw materials and driving prices up, but Beijing ‘will be able to maintain its supply stranglehold’ on rare earths.