Energy Blast – Feb 17, 2010

President Dmitry Medvedev says that Russia believes Iran should cooperate more broadly with the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that it could face sanctions if it did not comply, and reportedly added its name to a joint statement to the IAEA with France and the US.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is talking about changing the ‘mentality‘ driving the use of natural resources.  During a Moscow visit by the Greek prime minister, Putin said that Greece’s participation in oil and gas pipeline projects with Russia could help to boost its struggling economy, as he tried to drum up momentum for the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline.  Greece is supposedly wondering whether Russia has enough oil to fill the pipeline, which needs 50 million barrels a year, and has suffered long delays.  Reports say that Poland’s PGNiG lost almost €1 billion between 2006-2009 due to ‘botched negotiations‘ with Gazprom.  TNK-BP plans to invest $1.3 billion in factory reconstruction over the next five years to improve ‘the depth of the refinery, not the output capacity – high-octane gasoline instead of fuel oil‘.  The Economist looks at what the Copenhagen climate change summit did to provide a way for countries to make their emissions commitments public.