Energy Blast – July 8, 2008

TNK-BP’s Russian shareholders, AAR, failed to have the firm’s CEO, Robert Dudley, dismissed, but signaled that they will continue to try to oust him. BP rejected claims that it had treated its Russian partners as “subjects, not equals“. According to the head of OGK-1, Russian power producers expect coal prices to follow the cost of gas sharply upward in the coming years, and are switching away from coal as much as possible. Spanish oil company Repsol is in “advanced negotiations” to buy a “significant” stake in Russia’s Sakhalin Island oil and gas reserves. The Russian government is reportedly in talks with UBS and other Swiss banks on management of its two oil wealth funds, worth a combined $163 billion. Russia’s hydropower levels have fallen to their lowest in 16 years, exacerbated by a “chronic rail wagon shortage”. The prime minister of Latvia says that Russian plans to stop shipping coal and oil products via the Baltic states conflicts with its aim to join the World Trade Organization.