Rosneft has apparently discovered a field that could add 4% to the company’s existing reserves. Gazprom has announced that it will extend a contract on gas supplies to Western Europe via Poland until 2045, while gas supplies to Poland may increase to 11 billion cubic meters from this year. Gazprom Neft has signed a contract to develop the Badra oil field in Iraq. Lukoil has called on the government to extend tax breaks to new areas and to continue to offer the oil industry support. Kudrin has apparently said that the tax breaks will remain in eastern Siberia but a review is taking place. At the World Economic Forum at Davos, Tony Hayward, group chief executive of BP, has said that the world needs to increase oil output and that the exploitation of US shale gas is a ‘game-changer’. Read here about how China is priming its oil-rich neighbors – and what it means for Russia. Ukraine is apparently seeking out a solid agreement with Russia on gas transit to prevent it from bypassing the country in pipeline plans. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has said that if the EU wishes to compete with Gazprom for Caspian natural gas it must take on a ‘serious approach’. Is there already trouble ahead for the Belarus-Russia deal?