Energy Blast – April 16, 2010

Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said gas exporting nations are ‘very concerned‘ about the European spot market.  Spanish oil company Repsol may sell its stake in Alliance Oil for as much as €70 million.  Russia has closed its last weapons-grade ADE-2 plutonium reactor, a Stalin-era military production complex that had been used primarily to heat the city of Zheleznogorsk.  Eurasia drilling will pay a lump sum of $77 million to its main owner after raising $227.5 million by placing its treasury stock on the London Stock Exchange.  Finland, meanwhile, may double its nuclear energy production over the next ten years in a bid to wean itself off of Russian electricity imports, which reached a record high last year.  Qatar is making offers to Gazprom to help it develop its LNG projects after 2014 when a moratorium on the North Field is lifted.  There is scope for Irkutsk-based companies to supply as much as 23 million tons of crude a year to the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (VSTO) pipeline by 2025.