Energy Blast – Feb 15, 2011

Ria-Novosti reports that an indigenous group living in Russia’s northern region of Yakutia has mounted a campaign against the building of a Siberian gas pipeline, to be constructed near an Evenk settlement, which they say will destroy habitats and uproot the community.  A boon for Russia’s largest crude producer Rosneft, which hopes to increase fuel supplies to Asia, as it claims to have found two deposits in east Siberia that may hold 1.17 billion barrels of oil‘We will read what they are hiding. This is a big victory’: Transneft minority shareholder Alexei Navalny talks on his blog about a court ruling which he believes will allow him to probe the pipeline maker’s murky operations.  Italian, Czech and Slovakian consumers reportedly sent requests to Gazprom in 2010 asking it to lower its gas prices; the company has, Reuters reports, agreed to reduce gas prices in its long-term contracts for some European clients last year on the basis of flagging demand and low spot prices.  The Telegraph reports on Royal Dutch Shell’s nascent interest in Brazil.