Energy Blast – July 6, 2009

An intergovernmental transit deal for the Nabucco pipeline will be signed on July 13.  Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko says, ‘we have a clear understanding that Turkey doesn’t perceive Nabucco as an alternative to South Stream‘.  Russia and Turkey are apparently ready to discuss cooperation on gas marketing.  Lukoil is signing a $1.2 billion syndicated loan with a group of 12 banks.  Poland may prolong its gas contract with Russia until 2035.  An Irish company has apparently invented an innovative way of cleaning land contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster.  Iraq reportedly hopes that its second round of bidding for oil and gas field will be more successful than its first which ‘didn’t achieve the full objectives of the Ministry of Oil’.  RFE/RL looks at Germany’s divisions over Nabucco and South Stream, given that Joschka Fischer, who was a member of Gerhard Schroeder’s cabinet, has been appointed a lobbyist for the Nabucco pipeline, when his former boss, Schroeder, is on the payroll of Gazprom.  Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ukraine’s state natural-gas company, is seeking to raise $4 billion to pay for Russian gas.