Energy Blast – Jan 17, 2011

Commenting on the controversial news of BP and Rosneft’s deal, UK opposition leader Ed Miliband says that, in the wake of the Deepwater disaster, energy companies should focus on alternative energy rather than drilling, but Rosneft says that Deepwater has given BP valuable experience, with Vladimir Putin dismissing suggestions that the company has been ‘tainted‘.  The Moscow Times says that the deal is ‘win-win‘ for both sides, whilst The Guardian reports on ensuing ‘hostility and suspicion‘ from the US against BP, suggests that the deal constitutes an attempt by BP to move on from the Gulf disaster, and says it is ‘threatening to provoke a rift‘ with TNK-BP shareholders group, Alfa Access Renova, which is suggesting that the agreement may be in breach of its existing deal with BP.  Yukos is urging BP investors to question the real ownership of Rosneft’s assets, saying that Rosneft ‘has benefited disproportionately from the illegal auctions, bogus bankruptcy fire-sales and expropriation of Yukos Oil Company since 2004‘.  And what of the ecological threat posed by plans, drawn up under the agreement, to ‘exploit the Russian Arctic‘?  Kazakhstan’s National Oil Fund, created as a defense against a decline in the price of crude oil, is celebrating $900 million worth of earnings on its investments.  Russian scientists working at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant are lobbying the Kremlin to postpone the plant’s activation in order to assess the potential damage caused by the Stuxnet cyber attack.  Even with a new pledge of support from the president of Azerbaijan, the Nabucco pipeline remains ‘desperate for momentum‘ in this its ‘make-or-break year‘.