Energy Blast – Jan 10, 2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has expressed concern that the Gulf States may be too lenient on Iran, insisting that the secretive power’s nuclear capacities ‘remain a serious concern’.  Tehran’s Foreign Minister has reportedly claimed that the country will be able to make its own fuel for a nuclear research reactor later this year, following a technological breakthrough.  Some remain skeptical about the regime’s capabilities.  The Washington Post reports on why the US is unprepared for seizing hold of Arctic mineral wealth.  President Medvedev has ratified a civil nuclear energy pact with Japan.  The Dutch Supreme Court has, according to Bloomberg, lifted the freeze on $1.2 billion of proceeds from the 2006 sale of a refinery by a former Dutch unit of OAO Yukos Oil Co, a positive update for stakeholders of the expropriated company.  The Telegraph takes us on a pictorial tour of the world’s top ten oil-producing countries.