Energy Blast – Dec 10, 2010

The pressure is off for Europe after Russia and Belarus reached a deal on oil exports, with the former promising to drop duties on crude for Belarus in exchange for its 2011 export duties.  Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin thinks Rosneft is three times undervalued.  A new World Bank investment program for boosting renewable energy in Russia, including investment in thirty projects, will be the first of its kind in any country, reflecting what it views as Russia’s ‘huge renewable potential‘.  Russia has ‘hardened its opposition to any renewal of the Kyoto Protocol after 2012‘ at climate talks with the EU, according to the Irish Times; it seems that Russia, together with Japan and Canada, wants to know why China and the US are not included in newly proposed restrictions on fossil fuel emissions, as sources express concern that the UN meeting will become ‘a zombie conference‘.  The Shtokman offshore field is to go ahead ‘with French companies as full-fledged partners‘, said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (Shtokman’s license is held by Gazprom, in partnership with Total and Norway’s Statoil).  The announcement comes after a visit with Putin’s French counterpart François Fillon in which the two signed hydroelectric agreements granting Alstom access to Russia’s strategy energy market.