Energy Blast – July 1, 2010

TNK-BP’s deputy chief executive has told reporters that the company may buy a stake in the asset sale BP will organize to fund the cash-eating Deepwater spill clean up.  Gazprom may purchase Hunt Oil’s stake in Yemen’s liquefied natural gas plant, perhaps jointly with Saudi Arabia, the Moscow Times reports.  The Russian exporter is apparently seeking to join Statoil’s deepwater exploration project in Nigeria, the Nnwa Doro block, as it attempts to gain a foothold among the other multinational companies operating on the continent.  Russia has embarked upon the first step in a controversial plan, which has raised concern among environmentalists, to create floating nuclear power stations across its northern coastline.  Gazprom has allegedly acknowledged admitted to owing $32 million to Minsk for gas transit through Belarus, Belarussian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko has told news agencies.