Energy Blast – Nov 7, 2011

A difficult weekend for BP: firstly the Guardian reports on a how a BP internal briefing, obtained by Norex and published through the New York court procedure, revealed that the British major, which is still attempting a reputation clean-up post-Macondo, saw the Russian oil industry as ‘infested with criminal elements long before Alfa took over TNK‘.  Secondly, the troubled company’s plan to sell a stake in its South American unit for $7 billion has collapsed, which could reduce its cash flow and dividends.  Reuters reports that Greece’s economic and political crisis could imperil plans to bring central Asian gas into Europe through the debt-stricken country.  Turkmenistan is optimistic that a long-delayed agreement to sell natural gas to Pakistan and India will soon come to fruition and is similarly upbeat about the ambitious TAPI pipeline project.  Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has described the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant as a symbol of the positive cooperation between Iran and Russia.  Cuadrilla Resources’s Lancashire earthquakes represent ‘a major headache’ for the advocates of fracking for shale gas, says the Telegraph.