Energy Blast – Dec 2, 2009

‘It would take a long while to collect $100 billion, but it would start to make life very difficult for the Russian Federation’.  The international ruling in favor of Yukos shareholders is ’embarrassing for Russia’ says Jason Bush in Reuters – although the Kremlin could play the sovereign immunity card.  Russia is apparently toughening up on Iran, with diplomatic sources saying, ‘if there is a consensus on Iran sanctions, we will not stand aside’.  But is consensus a possibility given China’s Iran stance?  Iran has menaced the IAEA with legal action after the agency condemned the country’s nuclear projects.  Iran’s plans to extend its nuclear capacities ‘do not add optimism to the already complicated negotiations with Iran‘, one Moscow diplomat has said.  Russia has ‘made a mistake’ in criticizing Iran, President Ahmadinejad has told national TV.  Statoil and Gazprom have signed initial deals to import liquefied natural gas to the United States and trade energy there.  The Czech Republic apparently still faces the risk of interruptions of gas supplies due to problematic relations between Ukraine and Russia.  Gazprom Neft has agreed to buy a unit of Swedish firm Malka Oil for roughty $118 million, Reuters reports.  The company has announced a 47% drop year-on-year in third quarter profit.  Russian oil output reached a new monthly record of 10.07 million barrels per day in November, up from 10.04 million bpd in October.