Energy Blast – Feb 24th, 2009

Is Kazakhstan going to suspend its joint venture with Gazprom due to effects of the economic crisis?  South Korea has agreed to provide Iraq with $3.55 billion worth of infrastructure in return for stakes in Basra’s oil fields.  Rusal says it has worked out mechanisms for dealing with its principal debt, which hovers somewhere around the $16.3 billion mark.  Kazakhstan has delayed construction of a nuclear power plant in Aktau that was due to be fitted out with Russian reactors, over a dispute about ‘intellectual property’.  Rosneft will pay more than $160 million to be the official oil sponsor of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.  Total says it has no immediate plans to sign a delayed $5 billion deal for development of Iran’s South Pars natural-gas field, forecasting an agreement for mid-March.