Energy Blast – Jan 26, 2011

According to the FT, Lithuania is sending a formal complaint to the EU accusing Gazprom of abusing its prime position as the country’s principal gas supplier and preventing the liberalization of the Baltic state’s energy industry.  In a bid to increase its energy independence, Ukraine is planning to purchase a drilling platform in order to extract hydrocarbons from the Kerch sections of the Black Sea shelf, as well as looking to source gas from shale and coal layers.  Russia has resumed pumping crude oil to Belarus refineries for the first time in 2011 after a halt that affected European fuel supplies.  South Stream will do nothing to help Europe diversify its gas supply, says Nabucco adviser Joschka Fischer, who firmly believes that his project ‘is the only strategic opening for Europe’s diversification’.  Could Japan to be a new purchaser of Russian coal?  Russia predicts an increase in Arctic traffic over the coming year as a climate-change induced thaw opens up coveted shipping routes.