Energy Blast – Aug 2, 2010

Siberia’s Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydropower Plant, the site of an accident last August that killed 75 people, will see its new hydropower unit launched today.  The Moscow Times is running this in-depth Reuters profile of the ‘completely unflappable‘ Robert Dudley. BP is looking to sell its German petrol station chain, Aral, for $2.6 billion; its Venezuela assets are likely to be taken on by TNK-BP.  Russia’s oil output hit record highs last month, running consistently at over 10 million barrels per day.  China is importing a third less Iranian crude than it was at the beginning of the year: ‘There is a lot of talk about whether this is a political decision by China or whether it’s simply a pricing matter.‘  Iceland’s Svartsengi geothermal power plant is the subject of a ‘political storm‘ as Canada’s Magma Energy threatens to pull its planned investment.