Energy Blast – April 16, 2008

Oil prices have surged to a new high, reaching $114 a barrel. Diamond company De Beers will acquire a large stake in the Verkhotina diamond deposit from LUKoil, ending a six-year legal dispute. The European Union sees Turkmenistan’s offer of gas for Europe as a “breakthrough”. Unified Energy System will delay its sale of OGK-1, a deal potentially worth $7 billion, by at least a month. Greece has agreed to join the Kremlin-backed South Stream gas pipeline project. Four of the five mines at Rusal’s bauxite mines have resumed operations as more than 5,000 miners agreed to return to work. Electricity trader Inter RAO wants to take part in a $2.5 billion project to build power stations in Turkey. Small, foreign-owned oil and gas firms operating in Russia are having trouble financing their projects.