Energy Blast – July 2, 2009

Despite coming third in a bid for Iraq’s West Qurna-1 field, Lukoil says it would be interested in bidding again.  Apparently Russia has offered Turkey an opportunity to participate in the South Stream pipeline project.  The Baltic Pipeline System, created to transfer oil from western Russia’s Bryansk Region to the Leningrad Region, will start operating in late 2011.  International Power has left the Czech energy market after finding it ‘difficult to grow‘ in the region.  Finnish environmental authorities have concluded that the Nord Stream pipeline will not pose serious problems to Finland’s environment and the project can move one step forward in the approval process.  Poland is seeking a deal to increase gas supplies from Russia by between 2 billion to 3 billion cubic meters annually.  Hungary and Slovenia are considering the possibility of connecting their gas and electricity networks to improve the security of their supplies.  President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan has invited Medvedev to a desert auto rally in an attempt to propitiate Russia after energy disputes.