Energy Blast – Jan 7, 2011

The New York Times reports that a US diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks describes energy giant Gazprom as riddled with iniquities and is ‘inefficient, politically driven, and corrupt’.  Australia’s coal industry may face ongoing disruption due to damaged reeked by heavy flooding, which has reportedly washed away some major road and rail links.  Apparently 70% of the first line of the Nord Stream gas trunk line has been laid.  Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz has paid Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom $1.078 billion for December gas deliveries.  Eni has had a disappointing foray into the Barents Sea.  ‘Put simply: poorly-linked national markets cannot cope when things go wrong’: the Financial Times analyzes why Europe will find it hard to cope with soaring oil costs.  Bloomberg reports that the Kremlin has issued carbon emissions credits to a project in the country’s North, jointly developed by Gazprom Neft JSC, Mitsubishi Corp. and a unit of JX Holdings.